Winds of Change
by Noritsu
Summary: Tells the story of the battle that occured at the end of Season 3, and the aftermath. Rai centric mostly. Other main characters also present. Story is finished.
1. The Battle Begins

**Xiaolin Showdown**

**Winds Of Change**

Authoress: Noritsu

Disclaimer 

I do not own the Xiaolin Showdown characters, or the Xiaolin Showdown universe.

They are copyrighted and belong to Christie Hui and Warner Brothers.

The storyline, however, is mine. So no pilfering, please. Thanks.

**TUN** Publishing Company

April, 2007

**T**he**U**sual**N**onsense

**8/25/07:** Deleted the title page and placed it at the beginning of Chapter One. This way, the chapters of the fic match up with the numbered chapter slots of the site.

Orientation note: If you are standing on the temple steps looking **_out_**, then the trees are to your right. Even though the battle is taking place outside the temple walls for now, I am using the reference point from the temple proper, not the field in front of the temple.

General comments will be written at the end of the chapters.

**The Battle Begins**

Raimundo Pedrosa unwrapped the bandage from his hand and peeled the other bandage from his cheek as he considered the scene that lay before him. Heylin leaders and various other Heylin lackeys were assembled beyond the front wall of the temple. Apparently they had come to challenge him.

Behind him, Master Fung was speaking. He was telling him that the survival of the entire planet rested on his shoulders. This was perhaps an overstatement of the obvious, considering the crowd of evil that was standing on their doorstep.

In his mind Raimundo was already running down a list of various element attack combinations that would do the most damage. So the Heylins wanted to measure him up, did they? Well, if they needed something different to talk about, he would be more than happy to oblige them.

Rai jumped from the top of the temple steps and charged forward with a battle cry that echoed in the still afternoon air. Clay Bailey, Kimiko Tohomiko and Omi leaped forward off the steps and ran after their newly chosen leader, their voices raised to join Rai's.

Chase Young and Wuya moved not a centimeter from where they were standing. They had a plan of their own as well. Divide and conquer. It was short, simple, and to the point. They hadn't had time to work it out in great detail, but, with the monks hopelessly outnumbered, they weren't too concerned.

Raimundo was practically on top of them when he suddenly leaped in the air and kicked his foot out towards Wuya knowing full well what the result would be. As expected, she grabbed his foot with little seeming effort and flipped him away from her. Rai spun over backwards and reached out to grab Wuya's still outstretched hand. His feet hit the ground and he immediately shoved off again, pulling her over in another somersault with him. She shrieked as he yanked her forward into the air. As he reached the midway point, he suddenly kicked both legs out straight catching Chase square in the chest. Chase stumbled away as Rai let go of Wuya's hand. She went sailing backwards away from him, screaming, toward the temple wall. The entire move took scant seconds to complete. He barely registered the sound of her body hitting the ground as he charged forward again, this time after Chase.

"Jackbots, attack!"

Rai skidded to a halt. Jack Spicer hovered in the air, trademark smirk plastered on his face.

"Ha! Xiaolin Losers! You're gonna get creamed!"

The Jackbots descended on Clay, Kimiko, and Omi while the assorted Heylin team members that had been keeping them busy suddenly abandoned the three monks.

Rai turned on his heel and watched as they practically hurled themselves toward him. Of course, that was the diversion.

He turned to glance behind him again. Where was Chase?

"Wind!"

He shoved his hands downward to brace against the updraft of air he called forth. The wind lifted him up and he sailed away backwards from the oncoming melee. It did not register in his mind that he didn't call out 'Shoku-' and then string some other words out behind it. 'Wind' was all he needed to say at the moment. It would suffice.

Throwing his arms out straight, he kicked his foot back and swung it around in front of him. Using his outstretched arms for balance, he began spinning in mid-air. He folded his arms against his chest and pulled the air molecules in around him until they covered his entire form in the shape of a funnel cloud. Internalizing his thoughts, he directed himself forward to where the others were battling the Jackbots. Cyclone-force wind ripped through the rows of bots turning them to shrapnel. The Heylin team scattered like leaves under the onslaught.

"My Jackbots!" Jack wailed. "Why do you always have to destroy my Jackbots?"

Kimiko seized the moment. Chances like this would likely be few and far between. Calling forth her element she threw out a wall of fire. It blanketed the falling Jackbot scrap in her immediate area. She swirled the fiery scrap together in her own version of a mini-tornado and hurled it at the hastily retreating Heylin fighters. The sound of several pained shrieks carried back to her ears. She allowed herself a wicked grin as Rai dropped down and made a neat three-point landing next to her.

Round One was over.

"We've only got a couple minutes tops, guys," Rai said.

"Or maybe not, young warrior."

Rai froze and allowed himself about a second, maybe a second and a half, for the voice to sink in. So that's where Chase had gotten to. He turned around slowly and waited while the chill traveled its way down to the bottom of his spine. Chase, and Mala Mala Jong, had circled their way around to join Wuya and were standing directly behind them. He'd actually kind of forgotten about Mala Mala.

_Crap._

Rai assessed their situation as quickly as he could. The three evildoers weren't standing that close to them. Of course, they weren't standing that far away, either. If he and his friends launched into one of their formation attacks, they would most likely get knocked over like bowling pins. He tilted his head slightly. The thundering sound of feet pounding on hard ground told him that the hired help had turned around, and were heading back in their direction. If they didn't do something soon, they would end up trapped between the two groups. He ran down the list of his remaining options, which didn't take very long, considering how short it was. There was really only one maneuver he felt would work here, and it involved a slight bit of subterfuge.

"Kimiko, Clay, switch places."

Kimiko and Clay ran a small circle around Omi. This put Kimiko on the end, opposite Wuya, and Clay was now standing beside Raimundo.

"Kimiko, you take Wuya. Omi, you take Chase. Clay, you and I'll take the glowy dude."

"Afraid to fight me, Pedrosa?" Chase asked.

"Not likely. I consider _him_ to be more of a threat than _you_," he said, hooking his thumb in Mala Mala's direction. "However, in the interest of fairness, you're more than welcome to take a crack at me after we get done kicking demon butt. That is, if you can still stand upright after Omi gets done with you."

That last statement prompted a smile from Omi. The preceding statements, crafted in a deliberately insulting way, elicited the intended opposite effect from Chase. His was gritting his teeth, the anger showing clearly in his eyes, but he said nothing.

"You guys ready?" Rai asked.

A chorus of affirmatives came back to him in answer.

"Okay! Let's go, then! On three!"

He waited a beat, and then said, "Three!"

Kimi, Omi, and Clay jumped forward to engage their foes. Rai took two steps forward to make it appear as though he intended to do the same. As soon as his second footstep hit the ground, though, he changed directions and began backpedaling.

"Wind!"

Four rotating masses of air sprang up from the ground. One under his feet, the other three each under the feet of his comrades. They lifted him and the others, up, up into the sky away from the fight. Kimiko, and Omi perched easily on top of their funnel clouds. Clay, however, was mostly lying sideways, and being jostled by the spinning wind.

Rai's intention was to fly up high enough to clear even Cyclops' reach. He wasn't expecting a thoroughly ticked off Chase Young to jump into the air after him. He pulled away from his three friends a little to give himself some maneuvering room. Then, he literally blew them over in the direction of the woods that grew in front of the temple to the right of the entrance. Hopefully, they would circle around to the temple wall and wade back into the conflict from behind.

Chase slammed into Rai with a full body attack that knocked the elemental air from his lungs. Momentarily stunned, he fell from the sky and onto the ground on his back. He felt something wrench and pain shot up the side of his back. He closed his eyes and tried to internalize so he could quash the pain, if even only temporarily. Chase planted his foot on Rai's chest, digging in his heel, and smiled.

Rai took a few deliberate breaths and grabbed the intrusive foot around the ankle. He wrestled with it for a few moments and then gave up.

Glaring at Chase, he asked a single question. "Explain to me again why you came here today?"

An amused look swept over Chase's face. He hadn't explained anything, yet. "Why, certainly," he replied. "I came here today to rid myself of you so I don't have to worry about you in the future. And that's exactly what I intend to do."

* * *

Greetings and Salutations!

Thank you for being curious enough to click on my Xiaolin Showdown story.

I am Noritsu, the sole proprietor and lone employee of the TUN Publishing Co.

You may call me Nori if you like.

This is not the first story I have ever written in my life. I have written other stories, both fiction and non-, although that was waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back in middle and high school when it was an assignment.

This **is** the first fanfiction story I have written, however.

The purpose of this story is to chronicle the events of the battle, and the aftermath, that took place at the end of Season 3, which The Powers That Be so graciously gypped us out of and left us hanging with. The PTB that I am referring to are the WB suits, **not** Christie Hui or the other writers.

This is a finished fic. There are 17 chapters in all. I intend to upload one chapter a day, so in 17 days you will have the entire thing. That is, as long as my computer doesn't crash, or lose the cable connection, or otherwise malfunction, or gets stolen by evil penguins.

I sincerely hope you enjoy what I have written. Feel free to push the button and leave a review.

TTFN (TaTaForNow), Noritsu  
_this is no pie!_


	2. Dire Straights

I am now the proud recipient of one review! Thank you DeafLizgon. I am feeling encouraged, therefore, I will post another chappie.

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

General comments will be written at the end of the chapters.

**Dire Straights**

The chill crept back into Raimundo's body and settled itself in his spine. He needed to think of something, and he needed to do it fast.

"Wudai Crater, Earth!"

There was a thunderous 'boom', and then the ground started shaking. Chase's moment of gloating came to an abrupt end as he was thrown off balance along with everyone else. Whole sections of the Earth's crust rose up away from where Rai lay, forming a protective wall. The Heylins who had been standing on said sections went sailing through the air.

"Wudai Neptune, Ice!"

A numbing cold sensation slid underneath Rai's back. He felt himself being lifted skyward and then he found himself careening down an ice slide at full speed. He came to a stop at Omi's feet. Behind him, he heard the lifted sections of the earth's crust slamming back down into place. This was followed by more quaking, which only aggravated his sore back, and then the earth was stilled.

Clay leaned over and looked at him. "That there was a mighty close one." He tugged the brim of his hat and smiled. "You can thank us later."

A pained look crossed Raimundo's face and he pointed at something behind Omi. The three Wudai warriors turned around and their jaws dropped open.

Katnappe.

She flashed her nasty little feline grin and snapped her fingers. Panda Bubba's two henchmen jumped. Clay and Omi went down before they could muster up any resistance. Katnappe swung her arm at Kimi and scratched her flesh open across her shoulder with the metal claws sewn into her cat suit. Kimi yelled and stumbled backward, clutching at her injured arm.

The next several moments were a blur.

Somehow, Clay and Omi wrestled themselves out from under Panda's men. The two men were almost as skilled as they were in the martial arts, so fighting them wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Rai, angered by the injury inflicted on Kimi, decided his back didn't hurt as much as he thought, and peeled himself up off the ground. Lots of 'running, jumping and kicking', as Omi would say, ensued.

At some point in the clash, the Chameleon Bot made an entrance. It made a beeline for Raimundo since he was the one they wanted to rid themselves of. It shoved the fighters, Wudai and Heylin alike, out of it's way as though they were just rag dolls he was tossing aside. Its shadow came to a stop just behind, and a little to the side, of where Rai's shadow stretched behind him across the ground. Rai looked up. The bot was directly in front of him. It was taller than he remembered it to be.

Rai wondered vaguely if cursing the day the monks came for him would help him any in his present situation. Probably not, but it might make him feel better. The deafening silence finally worked its way into his brain and he realized everyone was watching the two, waiting for one of them to make a move.

He cast around looking for his team.

Katnappe, and Panda's two henchmen, had actually succeeded in capturing the three, and had their arms locked tight around them. They struggled weakly against their captor's grips to no avail.

Rai swallowed the fear he felt rising along the nape of his neck. It couldn't end like this. It just couldn't. The list of attacks he'd hoped to execute during the course of the battle whorled like a maelstrom in his mind. He couldn't sort them out anymore. Neither he, nor the others, had accomplished anything significant that would serve to pitch the battle in their favor. He was dangerously close to losing total control over how this battle would end.

In a sudden burst of memory, he heard Master Fung speaking to him about focus and control as clearly as if he were in a training exercise hearing them for the first time. In that moment, it hit him that the reason they weren't making any headway was because he hadn't hashed out a plan with the others before the battle started. The reason they had no plan was because _he _charged forward without gathering them in a quick huddle first to relay his thoughts.

Some leader he was turning out to be.

He recalled the time when Kimiko battled Jack for the Golden Tiger Claws. She'd stopped right in the middle of the showdown match so she could clear her mind to get her focus back. But stopping what you were doing in the middle of a showdown, and stopping what you were doing in the middle of an actual battle, were two entirely different things. Could he risk it?

His intuition was telling him yes.

Rai closed his eyes, and folded his arms into his tunic sleeves. Bowing his head, he reached down into himself, searching for his center. One moment of clarity was all he needed. It didn't matter if the Chameleon Bot seized him, or the others came forward to capture him in the process. Once he found his focus, he was certain he would be able to dispel any attack they tried to level at him. Everything outside of him fell away as he plunged down into the core of his being.

The Chameleon Bot misinterpreted Rai's actions as a sign of surrender. Its metal head peeled away, transformed into an exact duplicate of Raimundo's face, and laughed. This would be fun. Defeating the Shoku warrior as himself was the ultimate insult. Rai grimaced as it leaned over and picked him up, raising him up over its head as though he were some prize catch to be shown off.

Devastation twined its way through the three captured Wudai warriors. The thought that they had failed was almost too much for them to bear. Their mental defenses dodged the question of what Chase Young was going to do to Raimundo.

It didn't take long for the Heylin group to crowd around the bot. As they gathered together, Rai continued his internal descent down, ever deeper, searching for the centered part of himself where absolute stillness lay.

He cast his senses outward, mentally forming a picture of where the Heylin fighters were and how they were moving. He could sense the displacement of the air molecules from the spaces that their bodies took up. It was quite an extraordinary feeling. This had only happened to him twice before. The first time was when Master Fung tied a blindfold around each of their eyes and told them to pass a torch between them without burning each other. The second time was when he and the others where fighting the chi monster that escaped from the ying-yang world. He was able to sense where it was, and cast a wind attack on it to reveal its form so the others could see it.

He could sense the presence of Chase, Wuya, and Mala Mala very close to him, but he couldn't act just yet. He needed to wait just a little longer. He backed off on his ruminations and allowed his mind to still itself.

Chase looked up at Rai's unmoving form and frowned. Had the young warrior given up so easily? That wasn't like the Raimundo he remembered from past battles. Rai was as persistent as Omi when it came to fighting, and something just didn't feel right. He studied the young man's form and attempted to discern if there was something going on that he couldn't grasp. It was difficult to 'read' anything from his emotions. It was almost as if he had retreated wholly inside himself so he wouldn't have to deal with the fact that his miscalculations had doomed his group to a horrible fate.

"Are we going to stand here all day gaping at him?"

Wuya's voice broke into Chase's thoughts, and he turned to her. "No, Wuya, by all means, the honor is yours. Mala Mala, please come forward."

Mala Mala Jong stepped forward through the group to stand at Wuya's side. She pointed her finger in Raimundo's direction. She had waited far too long for this moment to arrive. Finally, she would get her revenge on the Xiaolin warrior who had betrayed her.

"Destroy him!"

Mala Mala roared and strode forward. Inside Raimundo the full force of his senses sprang to life. He had waited long enough. There was a fifth, oft overlooked, member of his little group that he needed to call into action.

Round two was over.

It was time to crush their enemies.

* * *

A note about the acronym. TUN stands for The Usual Nonsense. As typed in my Word document, there is an asterisk next to TUN on the Title Page. There is also a corresponding asterisk next to **T**he**U**sual**N**onsense. Alas, the asterisk got lost in translation when it uploaded onto the site. Apparently, OpenOffice doesn't like Word document asterisks….

Any of ya'll who like the story so far are welcome to leave a review if you wish. Just click the little button thingey.

TTFN (TaTaForNow), Noritsu


	3. That Sinking Feeling

The 'anonymous review' button has been enabled. Thank you Bao Blossom! Honestly, I didn't even realize it until I went back into my account, then, and started poking around again….

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

General comments will be written at the end of the chapters.

**That Sinking Feeling**

Master Fung stood, with arms folded inside tunic sleeves, and stared thoughtfully at the scene unfolding in front of him. He was not overly concerned with the fact that Raimundo had made the unfortunate mistake of neglecting to give his team members some basic directions to follow during the course of the battle. He was a little too eager to prove to himself, and the others, that the right choice had been made, and Master Fung understood this. Besides, Raimundo was not the first leader to ever make a tactical error in battle, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

As the first exchanges of the battle were made, Dojo alternated between clinging to Master Fung's leg and crying dramatically, "I just can't watch this!", and waving his fists in the air and shouting defiantly, "Alright, you go guys! Smash 'em!" For his part, Master Fung remained mostly silent, making mental notes about certain things he would want to discuss with Raimundo when the clash was over.

After Raimundo executed the rather nice wind move that turned the Jackbots to scrap, he began thinking to himself that there was something wrong with this picture. He scanned the assembled crowd and came to realize that there was a glaring omission among the Heylin fighters. An uneasy feeling came over him and settled in the pit of his stomach.

Where had Hannibal and Gigi gone?

"Good heavens, did you see that?" Dojo yelled, shaking Master Fung's pant leg as he watched Rai blow his three charges away into the direction of the woods. He then proceeded to scream in horror as Chase plowed into Rai's body mid-air and slammed him onto the ground.

Master Fung watched Jack Spicer turn and sail away, retreating from the battle. As he got smaller and smaller into the distance something began nagging at Master Fung's mind. A tiny seed of a thought flowed and progressed, and became bigger, and finally morphed into an unavoidable belief.

_They've gone to raid the vault._

"Dojo, we must go round up the elder monks.

"What? But we can't leave now! What if something horrible happens?"

"Dojo, the Wu vault is in danger. Hannibal Bean is not among the assembled fighters. We must get to the vault and quickly. I trust Raimundo. He will do what is best."

Dojo sighed as a dejected look spread over his face. "Okay, if I have to. But then can I come back out and watch again?"

Master Fung's eyebrow crept up into his hairline. "Yes, Dojo. After we have alerted the others and gone to the vault, you may return."

Finding the elder monks didn't take much effort. They actually ended up finding him. Most of them had had heard the crashing sounds, and were running towards the front of the compound to join him at the top of the steps. Master Fung briefed them on his hunch about the missing Hannibal and the vault. As he and the other monks spoke, an impending sense of doom shadowed Dojo's mind. They only had four warriors fighting against so many Heylins he'd stopped bothering to try and count them. The odds were definitely not in their favor. And if Hannibal and Gigi were missing from the fight, then they must already be in the vault. They had probably already ransacked most of the Wu. Hopefully, Master Fung and the others would reach the vault in time to stop them from leaving.

"Dojo, we are going now. I know you aren't going to like me asking this," Master Fung continued, "but if you sense the young ones are in peril, please go and assist them as much as you can."

"Yes, Master Fung."

He and the other monks moved quickly away, and began walking equally quickly down the pathway that would lead to the vault.

"Master Fung, wait!"

He turned around. Dojo was gesturing frantically toward the ongoing battle. "Look!" he said.

The four Xiaolin warriors were engaged in some sort of close-quarters fight with what looked liked Katnappe and two big men he didn't readily recognize. Soon, the rest of the Heylin members ran forward to join the other three.

"Dojo," Master Fung said, "Raimundo must deal with his battle as we must soon deal with ours."

As he began moving again, he thought he heard a buzzing sound in the distance. He looked up and scanned the sky. Jack Spicer was returning already with some more Jackbots. There didn't seem to be quite as many as there were the first time.

"We must make haste!" he said to the others.

They picked up the pace and got to the Wu vault in what must have been record time. There was no sign of Gigi. The door was open as he'd expected, and there was a faint light emanating from within. The sound of the Jackbots was getting closer. Master Fung stepped inside with the others. He took a deep breath and readied himself. He reached over and flipped on the light switch. The hanging lanterns sprang to life with a soft glow. He walked inside further, past the columns, followed by the elders. He thought he was prepared for the sight that would greet him. He was not.

Chase Young stood in the middle of the vault, smirking. Surrounding him were some of his army of jungle cats. "It's about time you got here," he said, "I was becoming quite bored."

Master Fung's mouth fell open. Literally. His eyes went wide, and the disbelief that shone in them betrayed itself to his enemy. He felt his head shaking itself from side to side in disagreement with what his eyes were showing him.

Chase Young sneered at him. "I see you were not expecting me to be me."

Master Fung swallowed his fear. It was not an emotion he felt very often. He remembered seeing the Ying-Ying bird before the battle first started. He had assumed that Hannibal was sitting atop it as usual, since he couldn't actually see him from the distance they were at. His memories flashed back to when Raimundo told him about how Hannibal had invaded his mind with the Shadow of Fear. Hannibal had been unsuccessful, however, in his attempt to defeat the young wind element. Had he and Chase agreed to switch places so Hannibal could go after Raimundo again?

A prickling sensation running along the back of his neck suddenly truncated his thoughts. There was danger lurking behind him. He turned around and searched the shadows for its source.

Gigi stepped out from behind the nearest column.

"Looking for me?" he asked, in his exaggerated French accent.

Master Fung felt the color draining out of his face as he and the other monks started backing up.

"Oh, don't try to leave me!" Gigi said in a whiny voice. "I am so glad to have some friends to pass the time with! You _must_ stay! I insist!"

He breathed out a cloud of fine, yellow powder. It spread over the monks and almost immediately began transforming them into plants.

For the first time in a long time, Master Fung felt his sense of hope fading from his mind. He was certainly of no use to Raimundo in this condition. Even if he hadn't been turned into a plant, he was still a captive. Dojo was now the only one left to back up the young monks if the tide turned against them.

A sigh escaped him as he contemplated the fact that their only chance of victory rested on the shoulders of a teenage boy who had been named leader less than thirty minutes ago. If Raimundo couldn't get them all out of this mess, well, he didn't even want to think about it.

* * *

And so now we have _both_ Rai and Master Fung in peril. Sheesh…

About the 'round 1 & 2' stuff: The references cropped up in the narrative as I was plotting the 'stages', if you will, of the opening fight scene. Round 1 ended when the Jackbots were shrapnel-fied and Rai thought he'd have a few moments to talk finally. Round 2 ended when Rai decided he was done with his focusing exercise (about 5 freaking seconds before Mala Mala was going to wipe him off the face of the planet) and decided it was time to kick some Bot heiney. The next chap. will finish up with the last 'stage'. Since it's the ending of the opening fight scene I decided to drop the 'round' reference.

Rai/Kim-ness: Well, I am a fan of Rai/Kim, although I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a 'shipper' actually. However, the ever-so-slight hints of Rai/Kim-ness fall mostly on Kimi, who does 99.9 percent of the worrying about him. The reason for this is that in the show, it was Rai who was shown with all the 'crush' feelings, while Kimi did nothing to return them. So, now Kimi can worry about Rai, because Rai's too busy worrying about everything, and everyone, else.

TTFN, Noritsu


	4. Breaking Out of Formation

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

Orientation note: If you are standing on the temple steps looking **_out_**, then the trees are to your right and the river is to your left. Even though the battle is taking place outside the temple walls for now, I am using the reference point from the temple proper, not the field in front of the temple.

_Italicized sentences without quotation marks indicate thought. _

General comments will be written at the end of the chapters.

**Breaking Out Of Formation**

Among all the wind attacks Raimundo had in his elemental arsenal, the one he'd perfected the most was his cyclonic attack. If he had been asleep, and had one hand tied behind his back, he could've still pulled that one off with more than a little panache.

So it was that as Mala Mala Jong charged forward for the kill, Rai put his plan in motion, so to speak. Throwing himself backward, away from the oncoming demon warrior, he pulled the Chameleon Bot off balance. This caused the bot to lose the grip he had on Rai. Rai dropped down against the bot – back to back – wrapped his legs around its waist, and threw his torso forward. As they flipped over, the bot's legs were yanked up and connected with Mala Mala. This knocked him backwards towards Chase and Wuya, who stumbled out of the way to avoid being hit. Rai called to his element and pushed himself off the ground catapulting him and the bot into the air. As he ascended, he unwrapped his legs from the bot's waist and twisted around to face it. He ripped the bots's arms out of its sockets so it couldn't attack him again.

"**_Dojo!_ _Fire!_**" he yelled, at the top of his lungs.

Dojo perked up at the distant sound of his name being called. Was it just him, or had it only been a few minutes ago that Master Fung had told him to help out if he was needed?

"Wow. Talk about your uncanny timing," he said.

He jumped off the ground and supersized himself. He placed his front feet on the wall and pulled himself over.

Katnappe chose this moment to dump Kimi rather unceremoniously onto the ground. "I'm not sticking around for this," she said to her two companions.

Panda's henchman shoved Clay and Omi down with Kimi, and took off after Katnappe.

The three monks looked at each other, and then up at the Heylins who were not paying any attention at all to them. Rising up on elbows and knees, they slowly began backing away from the crowd. If there was any luck at all left with them they'd be able to safely make it back to the trees.

Dojo took a deep breath and blew scorching hot flame across the area. The Heylin team scrambled to get out of the way.

"Wudai Orion wind!"

An inky blackness consumed Raimundo's form and a blue outline appeared around his body. He stretched his arms out in front of him, palms flat. Two tendrils of wind wrapped themselves, one each, around his outstretched arms and reached forward in the direction of the bot. They grabbed the bot's waist in accordance with Rai making a similar grabbing motion with his hands. Rai twisted his body so that he would start spinning. In turn the bot began spinning as well.

"_Dojo!_ _Cyclops!_"

On the ground, Kimiko, Omi, and Clay watched with mouths agape as they continued their backward movement.

The air spun around with Rai, slowly at first, then picked up speed, until finally it wholly covered his body in the shape of a funnel cloud. The funnel stopped just short of the Chameleon Bot, which by now was spinning so fast it was nothing more than a whirling silver blur.

Dojo got his tail caught by Cyclops in his attempt to remove him from the crowd. He mustered up all of his strength and flew up into the air taking the one-eyed creature with him. Stretching himself out to his full length, he whipped his tail around smacking Cyclops against one of the boulders strewn over the ground. Cyclops yelled and let go. Dojo turned around and blasted him with fire. Needless to say, the creature ran off in the direction of the river, screaming in pain.

Back at the front edge of the tree grove, the three warriors watched with fascination as Rai began moving. Obviously he was planning on doing some major damage.

Omi was the first to shake himself out of his reverie. "But, we are not in formation!"

The other two were silent for a moment as they digested this realization. Finally Kimi said, "Can he _do_ that?"

Clay pondered what his two teammates said. "Apparently he can, pardners."

Omi's lower lip slipped out from under the upper one and started quivering. He hung his head so the other two would not see the look of utter dejection that was plastered on his face.

Kimi put her hand on Omi's shoulder. "Omi, what's wrong?"

Omi sighed, considered if he wanted to share what he was feeling, and then spoke. "Master Fung was correct in choosing Raimundo as leader. He is obviously the most strong of all of us."

"Hey pardner, don't be so sad. It takes more than physical strength to be a leader. You have to have the brains to figure out what to do, too."

Omi turned to look at Clay. "I have brains!" he said.

"I don't think that's quite what Clay was trying to get at, Omi. We all possess a certain measure of physical strength, we all have brains, and we all wield our elements well. Rai just has that extra special something that makes him a good strategist, too. That's what will make him a good leader."

_And I'm sure the two of you would follow him to the ends of the earth if he asked. I doubt you would follow me there if I was leader. At least, not without arguing about it first. _

Kimi's words had actually made him feel sadder than better, but he said nothing.

The sounds of hysterical screaming finally silenced the conversation between the three teammates. They looked over just in time to see a stampede of Heylin fighters running at top speed towards them.

"What in tarnation—" Clay began saying.

Kimiko cut him off. "Run!" she yelled. She jumped up and grabbed her two teammates and pulled them after her down the path away from the stand of trees. They made it out of the way with moments to spare. They looked about for Rai as the panicked Heylins scrambled for cover in the small grove in front of the temple wall.

Omi was the first to spot him. "Look!" he yelled.

Rai was flying at top speed after the evildoers, skimming close to the ground. Dojo was hovering over him in guard position. In front of them, the Chameleon Bot spun like a propeller blade tearing up chunks of the earth and flinging them at the madly retreating fighters. Unfortunately, said chunks of earth cut a wide swath in front of the destructive wind Rai had whipped up. In fact, there were at least four or five that were currently careening in the direction of his three teammates.

There was no time to yell. Clay shoved Omi and Kimi onto the ground and threw himself on top of them. Earth was his element, he could take the hits. He sincerely hoped that Rai would be able to stop his forward momentum before he got too close to them. He didn't fancy getting sucked up into the whirlwind.

Several moments passed and the sound vibrations from the feet of the Heylins grew weaker, although Clay could still feel them coursing through the earth in the distance. The rush of wind rolling off of Rai seemed to have ceased now as well. Clay decided to chance it and pushed himself up into a kneeling position. The coast looked pretty clear to him. He poked his two friends and told them it was okay to look now. He pointed up into the sky.

"I think Rai's buckin' for an encore."

Raimundo hovered above the temple wall, fighting against the urge to just sit down on it already. He watched as his enemies ran through the trees, emerged from the other side, and kept on going. All of them except Chase, Wuya, and Mala Mala, that is. It kind of ticked him off that they hadn't gotten trampled in the stampede. He considered the hopelessly damaged bot that still dangled from his hand. He _could_ hurl it at them for no other reason than to spite them. Or, he could simply drop it and let it go. To hurl, or not to hurl? That was the question. A wicked grin spread across his face. Yep, hurl it was. He lifted the bot once more and began twirling it like a lasso over his head. After he got it spinning at a good enough rate of speed he let go. The bot crashed into the ground a few yards before the back edge of the grove of trees and exploded in a rather spectacular manner. The metal pieces flew forward through the trees rending branches and limbs from trunks. Pretty soon the open field next to it was awash in flying wreckage of some sort, snapping at the heels of his retreating enemies. Rai came down from the air and landed next to his friends.

"You know, I was wondering why Hannibal wasn't here."

Omi, Kimi, and Clay turned to look at him. Out of all the possible things he could have said at this moment, that was not what they were expecting to hear.

"Dojo says that Master Fung went to the Wu vault," Rai said. "He thinks Hannibal and Gigi are in there hijacking the Wu." He shook his head. "I just hope we don't get there too late." He wrapped a now downsized Dojo around his neck and began heading back toward the temple with the others following behind.

Across the way, a dripping wet, semi-cooled Cyclops trudged off into the hills in the opposite direction. If he _never_ tangled with those two again, it would still be too soon.

* * *

Okay, so, at least one of our monks has gotten out of the predicament he was in.

I'd like to take a moment to invite anyone else who is reading this fic to feel free to push the button and leave a review if you like. I have enabled the anonymous review button. Leaving a review will **_not_** put you in danger of being pestered by evil penguins, really!

TTFN, Nori


	5. Parting Is Not Sweet Sorrow

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

This is a short chap., sorry. But, you know, I like this chappie. It delves into Wuya's thoughts some, and shows her thinking about the situation she's in with Chase.

**Parting Is Not Sweet Sorrow**

Wuya watched as the retreating backs of her former associates receded into the hills until she could no longer see them. They certainly were running at a pretty good clip to get that far that fast.

Her thoughts turned to Raimundo. He had put on a good show for them this afternoon she had to admit. Of course, if she'd been in possession of her Heylin powers, none of what had so far transpired would have come to pass. She turned back from the edge of the trees to regard the small grove she was standing in. Many of the trees had been damaged in the explosion from the Chameleon Bot. The wreckage ended just a few yards away from where she, Chase, and Mala Mala were standing. Smoke from the destroyed bot rose and curled into the air from where it landed.

"We need to be getting back to the vault. The young ones have left now and I am sure they are headed in that direction."

Wuya considered Chase's words for a moment. "You do know that none of this would have even happened had you not taken away my power." It was not a question, but a statement. A statement of fact as far as she was concerned.

"You would be far too dangerous a being with your power intact."

"You mean far too difficult to handle," she retorted.

Chase pushed his other thoughts regarding their current situation to the back of his mind, and turned to face Wuya. "If you had your powers you would be vying with Hannibal and I for domination of the planet. Without your powers you are more like an ally. An ally I cannot trust, granted, but nonetheless….." His voice trailed off.

"An ally my foot!" she exclaimed, stomping the mentioned appendage onto the ground. "It amuses you to refer to me as your housekeeper!"

He smiled. "Yes, it does."

This only served to anger her further. "If I had my powers I would crush you where you stood and _you_ would be _my_ housekeeper!"

He folded his arms, and a self satisfied smile crossed his face. "As I was saying….."

Wuya turned her back to Chase, furious now, and gazed at the distant hills that housed their still fleeing associates. At least Hannibal had shown a willingness to help her get her powers back. Him and Jack. Where was Jack anyway? She shrugged. She'd heard the sound of his Jackbots whirring in the air, and then she'd lost track of them. No matter. She knew that Chase's 'kitty cats' were with Hannibal in the vault. Heaven forbid Chase would leave a loophole open for anyone to escape through. And that, in a nutshell, was the whole problem with Chase. He wanted to hog all the power and glory for himself. She however, would have been gracious and bestowed upon them a sort of 'esteemed minion' status. That is, after she crushed them and made sure they understood their place.

"We really need to be going now."

Wuya sighed as once again Chase's voice interrupted her thoughts. As they walked through the damaged wood toward the front path that led into the temple, she tried to pull a tentative plan of sorts together in her mind. If she left Chase for good, and went with Hannibal, he would most likely be supportive of helping her to find a way to retrieve her lost powers. Of course, she would have to play her sympathy cards right in order to wring as much trust as she could from him. Then, to prove that he was correct in trusting her, she would help him to destroy Chase as spectacularly and painfully as possible. After that, she would simply bide her time until the opportune moment to destroy Hannibal as well presented itself. She smiled. This was a good plan. It needed a little finessing, maybe, but it was a good plan. It was short, simple and to the point.

The front edge of the trees came and went, and she found herself standing on the narrow path that led into the temple. She rubbed her hands together, eager to get started on the final phase of their plan. Honestly, with the other idiots out of the way they should make much better progress. There was some old saying about too many cooks spoiling a pot of soup or something.

"Are you ready, or would you like to finish your apparently enthralling daydream?"

She smiled sweetly at the owner of the voice. "Oh I'm _quite _ready, thank you."

Chase walked forward, and she and Mala Mala stepped after him onto the path. What had she ever seen in him, really? Yes, he was handsome. Yes, he turned a phrase well. But she knew that he had little, or no regard, for her at all. It was time for her to stop kidding herself and get on with it. The reasons she was staying with Chase were as thin as the paper they were not printed on. So she would put phase one of her plan into action as soon as the day's events were over. She _would_ regain her powers. She _would_ take over the world. She _would_ rid herself of Chase Young once and for all.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

Good for her! She's got that whole 'evil girl power' thing going on…..

And what about the two Chase's thing? Is that really Hannibal in the vault? Hmmmm…

I would like to take a moment to address the review left by Sugarmakesmeangry.

I seem to clearly recall that Dojo rose to the occasion of taking down the Sapphire Dragon, single handedly, with a little help from two bottles of Granpappy's Texas Tin Horn Extra Spicy Salsa Sauce. Afterwards, in the vault staircase, he practically begged the warriors to tag him with the moniker "Dragon of Soot". I also seem to recall that he got into a Pinball Showdown with Wuya over a bag of Wu when they were at Master Monk Guan's place. Yes, he got into it by accident, and yes, he did lose. But while the showdown was in progress, the gang was behind him, cheering him on, and telling him that they knew he could do it. In the episode "Saving Omi", when Chase jumps down from the ledge, in dragon form, and his warriors step out from the shadows, Dojo immediately supersizes himself and spits fire at them in an attempt to protect the gang from harm.

So yes, Dojo does have some fighting talent in him. No, it has never manifested itself in the form of a fistfight, or hand to hand combat. And to that end, perhaps fighting _spirit_ would be a more accurate term. It may not run as deep, or as strong, as it does in the warriors – after all, he is supposed to be a quirky, mystical, scroll guarding dragon – but still, it is there. And, on occasion, it comes to the surface.

Personally, I have always thought that Dojo doesn't get nearly as much credit as he should, and I think it's a shame if there are XS authors disregarding him in this manner…

TTFN, Nori


	6. Onward and Forward

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

Let's get back to the action in this one. There's a nice little conversation between Rai and Kim, too.

**Onward And Forward**

Rai sat back in his patio chair and looked out over the training area. The return trip from the front temple grounds had passed without further incident. They had lost a bit of time however, having taken a side path that skirted around the Shen Gong Wu vault so they could scout out the situation. Gigi was on patrol strolling around the base.

The Jackbots that he, and everyone else, had lost track of, were circling around the top. From time to time certain ones veered away and flew over to look down the pathways to see if anyone was coming. Spicer was nowhere to be seen.

He fiddled absently with the Moonstone Locust while Clay and Omi began tucking various Wu inside their tunics. The Moonstone was the one Wu that Master Fung insisted not be kept in the regular vault because of the constant raids it suffered. If it had been, they'd have no way to dispense with the Heylin plant.

His mind wandered back to the beginnings of the battle. Master Fung had sent them to shower and change before the naming ceremony, and had told them it would be okay for them to store their Wu if they wished. Consequently, the only Wu they had with them were their Wudai weapons. Except for him. He had decided to take Master Fung at his word, and didn't have any Wu at all on him. It was something of an irony, though, that it wouldn't have mattered anyway if they'd had a truckload of Wu with them. The one detrimental thing about the Shen Gong Wu was that you couldn't make much use of them in a close quarters fight. Shen Gong Wu were best utilized when you were standing at least a few feet from your enemy. Hand to hand combat just didn't offer ideal conditions under which to put them into play.

His musings were broken into by Kimiko, who began poking him in the shoulder.

"What?" he asked.

She grinned at him. "Stop talking to yourself. Omi's trying to get your attention."

The corner of his mouth twisted in amusement. He considered sticking his tongue out at her, but that wouldn't be very leader-like would it?

"Yes, Omi?"

Omi held up the hand with the Golden Tiger Claws on it. "I am ready," he said.

Rai straightened up a little and leaned forward to place his hands on Omi's shoulders. He looked directly into his eyes to make sure he had his full attention. "Omi, I only want you to grab the Heart of Jong and the Shroud of Shadows. Don't worry with the other Wu. As long as we have the Heart and the Shroud we'll be good. The other Wu will just have to wait. And Omi, be as quick as you can, and _please_ be careful."

"I shall endeavor to do both."

Omi walked over to a clear space on the patio. He invoked the name of the Tiger Claws and was gone.

Rai looked back over at Kimi. They had turned their chairs so the backs were facing the table. "Shoulder?" he asked.

Kimiko raised her hand to touch the injury that Rai had cleaned and bandaged for her. "It's okay," she said. "It hurts a little."

Rai frowned at that. "First thing after all this nonsense is over, we get you to the healers."

"You worry too much."

"Actually, I think I need to start worrying more."

She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant by that, but he inadvertently cut her off.

"Just for the record, I was not talking to myself. I was thinking."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Really? And what were you thinking about?"

"Oh, you know, serious, important, leader type stuff." He imitated the grin she had given him earlier.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, brother…"

A blue and white wormhole abruptly opened up in the air in front of them and deposited Omi back onto the patio. He raised his arms triumphantly to show the two Wu he'd successfully procured. "Mala Mala is a heaping pile of assorted parts on the ground!" he exclaimed.

"You mean he's a pile of junk, Omi," Kimi said.

"Yes, that too!"

"Way to go, Omi!" Rai said. "That was just as good as the last time!" The smile suddenly faded. "Of course, I wasn't there the last time actually…." his voice trailed off. He shook the unhappy thought away and handed the Moonstone Locust to Clay. "You're up, big guy."

Clay smiled and walked over to where Rai was sitting. He took the Moonstone from him, and Omi gave him the Tiger Claws.

Rai motioned to Dojo, who came forward to slither up Rai's arm and perch on his shoulder. Clay frowned for a moment then, and regarded Raimundo with some concern. "Are you sure your back is okay?" he said.

"It's just a little twingy," Rai said which, actually, was a bald-faced lie. It burned like holy heck. "That's why I'm gonna let you guys have all the fun right now. Now get going! Chase and Wuya are gonna be mighty ticked that Mala Mala's been dismantled."

"Right!" Clay picked Dojo off Rai's shoulder and walked off the patio and down the pathway to where he'd have a clear shot at seeing the Wu vault and Gigi. He backed himself into a door frame as far as he could and waited. Gigi was just coming around to his side of the vault. He wanted to wait until the plant's back was facing him before he unleashed the locusts from the Moonstone. That way, Gigi wouldn't see it coming.

He held the hand with the Tiger Claws out in front of him. "Golden Tiger Claws," he said softly. He reached through the opening with the Moonstone. Across the way, he saw his hand pop out through the other side. It was really weird to see his hand way over there when he knew that it was still attached to his arm back here. He shrugged. "Moonstone Locust", he said.

A flurry of white locusts flew forth from the Moonstone. Gigi turned around when he heard the noise, and shrieked in horror at the oncoming swarm. Within seconds he was covered in the little insects, and was eaten down to his original state – a tiny seed.

Clay quickly opened the door and ducked inside the building. He left the door open a slight crack so he could still see.

The Jackbots, having been alerted by Gigi's shrieking, came down from the top of the Wu vault and looked around for the perpetrator of the attack. They fanned out, searching this way and that, but couldn't see anything. Finally they gave up and turned around. Apparently they thought that Gigi was just _gone_, for they made no attempts to peruse the ground looking for the seed.

Clay quietly stepped back outside. He opened another portal and picked Dojo off his shoulder to send him through the opening. Dojo scanned the area, found the seed and picked it up. He waved back at Clay. Clay grabbed him and pulled him back through. The slash opening sealed up as though it had never been there in the first place, and Clay ducked out from the cover of the door frame and headed down to the corner of the building.

After making sure that the coast was still clear, he tore off for the patio as fast as his legs would take him.

Rai was standing upright, and staring intensely at the patio table, by the time he and Dojo got back. Kimi smiled at him and Dojo, and then pointed over her shoulder to Rai. She made a see-saw gesture with her hand, indicating that at this point she felt his mental state was 'so-so' at best. Clay inclined his head in understanding.

Kimi jumped, and turned slightly, as she felt a hand place itself on her shoulder. Rai was standing next to her with a weary expression on his face. "I'm not losing it," he said.

She smiled wanly back at him. "We're just worried about you, Rai."

"I know," he said, "and I appreciate that you're concerned. But we still have to get rid of the Jackbots. Chase and Wuya will be back any moment. Are you ready?"

"Oh, yeah!" she replied.

He and Kimi stepped off the patio and walked down to the corner. From here they could just see the top of the Wu vault protruding past the roofs of the other buildings. Rai put the Tiger Claws on his hand and spoke its name. Kimi jumped through the portal and reappeared on the roof of the Wu vault.

"Wudai Mars Fire!"

The Jackbots went crashing to the ground in a waterfall of flames. Rai grinned. In the short amount of time they'd had to work with, after leaving Chase and Wuya, they'd managed to inflict some major damage on the bad guys' forces. He re-opened the portal and Kimi jumped back through. A few moments later, they were back on the patio.

"Okay, gimme the Heart and the Seed," Rai said.

Omi and Clay turned over the two requested items. Rai placed them in his hand with the Moonstone Locust. He slashed the air with the Tiger Claws and reached through with the seed, and the two Wu. It looked like he was placing them on something instead of just giving them a pitch. His arm came back out and the slash closed up.

Clay took his hat off and scratched his head. "So, where'd you put 'em?"

"Someplace safe."

Omi, Kimi and Clay looked at each other and shrugged.

Rai grabbed his Blade of the Nebula. He knew that that was not much of an answer, but he was not going to repeat with them the same mistakes he'd made back at Mt. Hong when he disobeyed Master Fung's orders. Wuya was no longer in ghostly form, therefore she could not invade his mind and find out what he'd done with the Wu. The other three had no idea what he'd done, either, and that's the way he wanted to keep it. If the Heylins succeeded in killing him, the Heart, the Seed and the Moonstone would be lost to them, even if only temporarily.

Okay guys," he said, "next stop is the Wu vault."

* * *

TTFN, Nori


	7. Worst Case Scenario

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

**Worst Case Scenario**

In the darkness of the Wu vault there appeared a sliver of light. A horizontal slash mark of light with a swirly circle in the middle. It invaded the dark emptiness at the bottom of the stairs and permeated the immediate area with a soft blue-white glow. Three boys, a girl, and a dragon poured forth from the slash mark and landed, rather ungracefully, on top of each other in a heap. If there had been a person standing there already, they would have thought that the center of the earth had opened up, and begun barfing out teenagers and mythical creatures.

This, of course, would have been an entirely incorrect assumption.

The slash mark receded and closed, and Kimiko, Clay, Omi and Rai peeled themselves off of each other and stood up in the darkness. Rai, for his part, was mightily glad that he had jumped through the portal last, and had landed on top. Because he'd taken a break in the action back there on the patio, his back actually didn't feel too bad right now. He didn't want to aggravate it again anytime soon.

"Hey, Kimi?"

"Yeah?"

"Set the wall on fire."

"Okey, dokey."

Blazing hot flame rushed past Rai's head.

"Aagh! Hey, watch the hair!"

The torches in the wall caught fire, and began to shed some much needed light on the surrounding area, as the sound of Kimi's giggling faded away. Rai chose to ignore said giggling and turned around. He pointed at the stairs.

"Okay, start pulling drawers open!"

He was pretty certain that the Wu had already been taken, but he wanted to be sure just in case.

Omi turned around and looked at him. "Why are we not going after Master Fung?"

"Wu first. Fungmeister second."

"I do not understand."

"Omi, please, just help with the drawers."

Omi pursed his lips, and an expression that looked like a mixture of unhappiness and irritation crossed his face. He turned around and headed up the stairs with the others.

Rai sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew that Omi was upset about losing the leadership position, but he didn't have time for this right now. After the battle was over – actually it was turning into more of a siege – he would search for the right words to placate the little guy.

"Anything yet?" he asked.

"Nada, bupkis, zilch," came the reply from Dojo.

"Okay, stop."

He walked back down to the bottom of the stairs. He gathered his thoughts together and then shoved them into a corner in the back of his mind. He needed to stay clear so he could focus.

"Let's see. If I was a bag of Wu, where would I be?"

"Oo, oo, I know, I know!" Dojo shouted.

Rai held up a forefinger. "I need silence please, while I engage in the ancient practice of ruminating."

A few random snickers carried back to his ears, but he didn't mind. He was trying to lighten the mood on purpose, to distract them from their worries.

He settled back into his musings. The Golden Tiger Claws were supposed to take you where you wanted to go. All you had to do was picture in your mind where you wanted to be. If Rai thought about being next to a bag of Wu that's where the portal should open up. The only problem with that was, what if Jack had put the Wu in a bag that was different then the one he usually used? Would the portal still open next to it, even though he'd conjured an image of a different bag?

He sighed. He couldn't waste time driving himself crazy over this.

"Golden Tiger Claws!"

He reached through the opening and waved and slapped his hands around for a moment or two. They fell on some kind of material that felt as though it had some hard objects inside it. He patted around at it for a moment and decided that had to be it. He grabbed it and pulled it back through the opening.

He turned around to face the others with the bag of Wu in his arms. "Hey look, it's Christmas," he said, grinning.

The others came down to stand next to him and he set the bag of Wu onto the ground. He opened it up and dumped the contents out. He picked through the various Wu until one in particular caught his eye. He picked it up and turned it around in his hands as though he were examining it for the first time.

"Why did you pick that one?"

Rai didn't answer Kimi right away. He continued gazing at the small round Wu as though he were mesmerized by it.

"I'm going to be using this."

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous?" she asked.

"Raimundo."

The sound of Omi's voice cut him off from having to answer Kimi's question. He turned to his shorter teammate.

"Yes, Omi?"

"The Changing Chopsticks are not in this bag."

"Didn't you put the Chopsticks back in your room before we went to the naming ceremony?"

"Um….yes."

Omi suddenly found himself to be the center of attention.

"Then why would you be looking in the bag for them?"

"I, um….was sure I had put them in my room. But then they weren't there when we went back. I, um…"

A strained look appeared on Raimundo's face, which caused Omi to stop speaking. Green eyes bored into his, and it suddenly occurred to him that, from now on, like Master Fung, Raimundo would be viewing his actions with either approval – or not.

"Omi, why didn't you tell me this when we were back on the patio?"

Omi swallowed as he watched Rai's jaw set and lock. He had the distinct feeling that Raimundo was terribly interested in how he was going to answer him.

He decided to grin. The 'big happy grin' maneuver had saved his butt more than once in the past, and if he was lucky, it would do so again now.

"I….did not….wish….to bother you….because….you….were busy?"

The half statement half question was followed up by more grinning.

Omi held on to his grin stubbornly as the anger in Rai's eyes faded and finally collapsed. Rai's shoulders slumped, ever so slightly in defeat, much in the same manner that Master Fung's had many, many times before. He sighed as his thoughts trailed off into the nothingness of the vault staircase.

"Um, Rai?"

Kimi's voice broke into his dark mood, and he looked upwards at nothing in particular.

"Yeah, yeah, it's okay. I just need to think for a moment."

He turned to study the wall opposite him. Instinct told him that Jack had taken the Changing Chopsticks. Jack was the only member of the Heylin team that he had totally lost track of. He had left early in the battle to round up some more Jackbots, but where had he gone when he'd come back? Obviously it had been into the bedrooms to look for the Chopsticks which he knew Omi usually kept. But why had he only taken the Chopsticks and not any of the other Wu? This didn't make any sense at all, unless he and Hannibal had worked up an alternate plan of some sort and wanted to lull them into a false sense of security. Rai had the sinking feeling that he was staring at something that was right in front of his face and yet he couldn't see it.

"Please remind me again that the Sapphire Dragon is in that pile."

Clay began rooting through the Wu again. "Yep, here it is." He held it up so they could see it.

Rai let out the breath he'd been holding, and a sense of relief flooded through him. He hadn't forgotten the threat Hannibal had made against him about getting him back for throwing the showdown match with Omi.

He finally turned around and said, "I'm going up topside to check things out. If I don't come back this is what I want you to do. Clay, you go back outside with the Serpent's Tail and break open the door. Omi, you flood the vault room with water and chase everyone out. Kimi, throw fire over the water and make as much steam as you can. Clay, shake the ground a bit to keep the bad guys off balance. Then you and Omi wreak as much havoc as you can, in any way that you can. Kimi, you stay and guard the Wu. Keep the Shroud of Shadows and Dojo here just in case."

Kimi locked eyes with Rai and they stared at each other for a long moment as Dojo swallowed his fear. He didn't like that last statement. The sense of impending doom he'd felt earlier wormed its way back into his brain and he shuddered. Finally he spoke up.

"Just in case what?"

Rai kept his eyes on Kimi as he answered Dojo's question.

"Just in case you need to retreat and go get Master Guan."

* * *

Awwwwww, poor Omi...he almost got his wittle self fussed….

And what _is_ going on with Jack? Seriously, this can't be good...

TTFN, Nori


	8. Almost

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

In this chap. we head back to the Wu vault, since that seems to be where everyone is congregating.

There is exactly one curse word in this story. It is in this chapter, in the very last sentence.

**Almost**

Master Fung sat, cross-legged, on the floor of the vault room cultivating his patience.

Shortly after he and the elder monks had been captured, Jack reappeared. He and the other Chase had spoken in hushed tones about something, and then he began rifling through the collected bag of Wu. After apparently not finding anything to his liking, he started another conversation with Chase, this one more animated than the first. It mustn't have gone the way he wanted, because when he left, taking Gigi with him, he looked rather frustrated. After Jack and Gigi were gone, Chase had amused himself by pacing back and forth, or walking in circles, around the spot where the monks were rooted, and flinging insults at them. He informed them that there was no way they were going to win. That they should just surrender and get it over with. That the Heylin team would be victorious and starting tomorrow the world would plunge into darkness, etc., etc., etc.

During all of this posturing, Master Fung came to the conclusion that this was not Chase after all but Hannibal who, for reasons unknown, had decided to disguise himself as the former. He also noted, with some amusement, the look of panic that enveloped the other's face when their plant features suddenly dissolved back into human form. Shortly afterward, they heard the sound of the Jackbots crashing to the ground.

Hannibal ran outside and came back in looking even more worried. He said nothing however, and then walked over to the Shen Gong Wu. Jack finally came running back in from outside wailing about how his Jackbots had been destroyed and he didn't have any more, and he knew this was going to happen to Gigi. Hannibal told him to shut up and get back outside, and do what he was supposed to do.

Master Fung turned his attention to the other monks with him. They said not a word but exchanged looks with each other that clearly said they knew their liberation would be shortly forthcoming and they should prepare themselves.

The jungle cats seemed agitated and they began pacing back and forth in a wide arc around the monks, seemingly looking for an enemy to come leaping at them from out of the thin air.

Too bad for the cats. They didn't know how right they were shortly going to be.

A blue and white slash mark suddenly opened up in the vault room. Two arms draped within the tunic of a Shoku warrior emerged from the gash, slapped around for a moment, grabbed the Wu, and were gone.

Hannibal, who was just coming back from the door after having made sure that Jack was returning to whatever it was he was supposed to be doing, made a lunge, too late, for the bag. He lay on the ground for a moment, stunned, and then pounded his fist on the floor in anger. He got up and whirled around on the monks and proceeded to yell at them about all the different ways he was going to exact revenge on them for ruining his plans. After that, he began pacing as well, and mumbling about how Chase and Wuya should have been here by now.

Raimundo chose this moment to drop down from out of the aformentioned thin air.

He landed right behind the cluster of monks and called Master Fung's name. The master turned around just as Rai looked up to see Chase Young walking towards him.

"Uunh? But…..!"

"It is Hannibal, Raimundo."

"Oh." Rai put his hands on his hips and studied Hannibal for a moment. "Why are you pretending to be Chase?"

"Because it amuses me. Now stand still boy, so I can come over there and pummel you."

Rai waved his hand in the air. "Oh, no, no, no, no. I already kicked your sorry butt. Not interested in a repeat. I came here to play with the kitties."

He began walking backwards toward the vault wall, the jungle cats stalking after him.

"Nice little kitties," he cooed at them. "I bet you're hungry. You've missed your lunch, haven't you?"

The warrior cats stopped and looked at each other, puzzled. Was this some kind of a joke? What was the Xiaolin idiot doing?

A mischievous grin appeared on Rai's face and he turned slightly and pulled the back of his tunic up. Then he proceeded to slap his backend. "You want a piece of this, huh? Come on, you know you wanna!"

Master Fung began rubbing his eyes.

_What on earth is he doing?_

Hannibal began laughing. "Oh goodie! Dinner and a show! I can't wait. The suspense is killing me. Go on, cats. Sic 'im!"

The expression on Rai's face darkened slightly and he pointed at the cats. "Your mothers were all domestic short-haired housecats!"

This made the cats rather angry, since they were not actually cats but defeated warriors that Chase had entrapped in cat form. They began advancing on Rai, growls rumbling deep in their throats.

"And they were all mixed breeds, too!"

The cats didn't need any more prompting. They ran forward to where Rai had backed himself against the wall.

Rai waited until the last possible moment. He jumped into the air and twisted around just as the jungle cats leaped after him.

"Ying Yo-Yo!"

A black and white spiral suddenly opened up and expanded into the air in front of Rai. The four cats that had jumped couldn't stop their forward momentum in mid-air. They went sailing into the spiraled wormhole. The Ying Yo-Yo rolled back into Rai's hands and the cats were gone. The other four remaining cats lowered their bellies to the ground and began slowly creeping torward him.

Rai held the yo-yo out in front of him. "Who wants to go next?"

The cats decided that maybe they should start backing up instead.

Hannibal stared at Rai, who remained hovering in the air behind the monks. It took him a moment to find his voice.

"Do you know how much I despise you, boy?"

"Oh, what?" Rai taunted, "you didn't see that coming?"

Hannibal was on the verge of answering Rai's question when the door to the Wu vault opened. Chase and Wuya appeared in the door frame and walked through into the vault room. They both had strained looks on their faces and Wuya was holding the various disassembled Wu that made up Mala Mala Jong. Chase looked from the monks, to the four remaining cats, to Rai in the air, and finally came to rest on Hannibal-as-Chase. His fists involuntarily clenched and unclenched. This was the only sign amidst otherwise seemingly normal body language that he was angry. Make that very, _very_ angry.

The last several minutes of his life hadn't exactly been to his liking, and now this.

He and Wuya had been walking up the temple steps when Mala Mala had suddenly begun moaning and lurching this way and that. Instinct immediately told Wuya what was happening since she'd been there the last time Mala Mala was destroyed. She turned and began to run back down the steps just as he lost his balance and pitched backwards to tumble down the stairs onto the ground. Wuya jumped after him at the exact moment that Omi popped out through Mala Mala's back. The demon warrior went crashing to the ground in separate pieces and Wuya jumped over them and ran after Omi.

Chase launched himself off the steps and went to Wuya's aid, although for different reasons. Omi would make a valuable prisoner and he needed to stop Wuya from harming him.

Omi yanked the Shroud of Shadows around him and disappeared. He was halfway down along the temple wall when he ripped a portal open in the air in front of him and jumped through. Wuya had proceeded to throw a royal hissy fit, complete with stomping her feet on the ground and yelling about the manner in which she was going to pay him back for what he'd done.

Chase's attempts to get her to calm down went unheeded and finally he'd picked up the Fist of Tebigong and flung it at her. He then told her, in no uncertain terms, to knock it off and pull herself together.

The walk back to the Wu vault had occurred without further mishap. The fact that there were so many individual Wu that made up Mala Mala had slowed them down because Wuya had to stop every now and then to pick up a piece that had tumbled out of her arms. They had heard the sound of the Jackbots being destroyed and then had noticed that Gigi was missing from patrol.

Now they were finally standing in the vault room and Chase was trying very hard not to hurl himself at Hannibal so he could strangle the life out of him.

"_Why_ are you pretending to be _me_?"

Hannibal smiled back at him. "I'll give ya three reasons. One, it makes this plan o' yours seem so much more interestin' than it is. Two, your cats like me better as you. And three," he leaned forward to stare directly into Chase's eyes, "it ticks ya off, don't it?"

Chase met the stare, unflinching, and growled under his breath. "Turn back into yourself _now_."

Hannibal stuck his tongue out. "Make me."

Chase bared his teeth and snarled. He started after Hannibal, and Rai decided this would be a good time to make his exit.

"Welp, gotta go! Golden Tiger Claws!"

"Moby Morpher!"

Hannibal transformed back into himself, and he and Chase took off after the wind dragon. Rai was almost entirely through the wormhole when Hannibal snaked out his tendril-like arms and grabbed him around an ankle. Chase grabbed onto the other ankle, and there was a fierce struggle for several moments as the two tried to pull him back from wherever he'd gone. Finally, Rai's body went slack and he was yanked out of the gash minus the Tiger Claws or the Yo-Yo.

Hannibal slammed him down onto the ground on his stomach, and Chase rammed his foot into his back. Rai couldn't help but to yell out in pain.

Chase turned to look at Master Fung. "Say goodbye to your protégé.

"You know what the only bad thing about 'close' is?" Rai said, in strained voice.

Chase and Hannibal turned their attention back to him.

"It only counts in horseshoes."

Chase's brow furrowed in puzzlement. He had no idea what Raimundo meant by that, not that it mattered.

"I learned that from Clay."

Chase frowned. He really didn't give a crap what Raimundo learned from Clay. He pulled the Blade of the Nebula from Raimundo's back and made ready to strike.

And then all hell broke loose.

* * *

Ooo, isn't that a nasty little plot twist?

Thanks to all for the continuing reviews! They are very much appreciated!

TTFN, Nori


	9. Alarm Bells

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

It's time to pull Master Guan into all the goings-on. Let's catch up with him in this chappie.

**Alarm Bells**

The first rays of the dawning sun slipped over the horizon and cast meager rays onto the ground. The night shadows clung stubbornly to the grass, rocks, trees, and various other earthen objects, and fought against the coming light for dominance. Somewhere in the distance a lone songbird began warbling. The nocturnal animals were by now safely ensconced in their nests, asleep, and would not awaken until the moon cast her silvery glow upon the land again.

Master Monk Guan rolled over and patiently waited while his consciousness returned from the sleepy abyss he had sent it into the evening before. His eyes slid open and he sat up in his bed, swung his feet down over the side and into his waiting slippers.

He reached out with his senses to determine whether or not there was a feeling of evil lurking in the air. Upon detecting none, he got up and went into the wash room across the hall. After showering, he got dressed and went into the kitchen for his morning cup of tea and some oatmeal.

On the surface it seemed as though this new day would most likely unfold in a fabulously uneventful manner.

However, as Master Guan knew all too well, there were times when appearances turned out to be deceiving, and things did not pan out in the way that you would think they should. It did not occur to him at all that this was a truism he should reflect upon at the current moment.

After finishing his tea and oatmeal he set about for a spot in which to settle himself for his morning meditation. He decided to sit next to the fountain today and allow the sound of the gently cascading water induce him into falling into that seeming void of nothingness that he found so refreshing.

When he was finished meditating, he got up, walked over to the concrete pad next to the garden, and began his morning t'ai chi routine. By this time most of the other monks had also finished with their own particular morning habits and joined him, forming up rows to the left and right behind where he stood.

The t'ai chi exercise came to its natural conclusion and Master Guan embarked on his walk around the temple. He then came back inside and continued his walk around the inside of the temple. Having found everything to his satisfaction he went back outside to consider what he ought to do next.

He never got the chance.

A flash of brilliant white light intruded into his peripheral vision. He turned toward it, and gasped at the sight of a row of shockwaves, expanding and rippling outwards from a distant epicenter. That epicenter was situated in an awfully familiar direction. If he was judging it right, it was over the top of Master Fung's temple.

Emotional instinct told him he should turn and flee. His logical senses told him there was no point. He couldn't possibly run fast enough to get away from it. He altered his footing, threw his arms up in front of his face, and braced himself for the impact.

As the first wave slammed into him, the entire world went mad. Everything was thrown into a topsy-turvy state. Unrealities assaulted every corner of his mind. The universe came unhinged and sucked him into a vortex of past and future remembrances, and occurrences, that he had experienced, and also never experienced. Finally, everything collapsed and imploded, and he found himself lying on the ground shaking from head to foot.

He got up, slowly, onto all fours and sat in a kneeling position. For several long minutes he concentrated on the simple act of breathing in an attempt to quiet his restless heartbeat and frazzled nerves. When he felt sufficiently calm again, he rose and walked over to the park bench in the garden and sat down. There he sat, for some time, trying to decipher what in the name of all the heavens had just happened.

In all the memories he'd acquired so far in the past fifteen hundred years, he could not recall a single one in which he'd gone through an event even remotely close to what had just occured. He rewound, skimmed back over them again, but detected nothing that would give him a clue as to what might have happened.

The only obvious explanation was that someone was attempting something new. The evidence most logically pointed to dark Heylin magic. Somehow, they'd managed to figure out where Omi had hidden the Sands of Time. Or, they had found a way to employ the dark magic as a way to time travel. They wanted to alter the past so as to alter the future. But to what end? Which one of them was the 'they'? Or, were they all working together now?

In any event, their plan had failed as seen by the fact that everything had now returned to normal. At least, everything seemed normal again.

He shuddered at the fact that in the second version of his existence, he'd been agreeable to drinking the Lao Meng Lon soup. He didn't recall that he'd been so desperately ambitious in his original life's youth. Apparently he was wrong, and that bothered him. He had acted no better than Chase had. And it made him nauseous to think of the insect creature he'd become.

In the first version of his existence, he'd been killed – by Jack Spicer, no less. In spite of how almost unbelievable this was, a part of him actually preferred that scenario over the second one.

The sound of approaching footsteps broke into his thoughts. One of the monks was coming towards him with a cell phone in hand. The monk told him it was Master Fung on the line.

He exchanged greetings with his colleague and then proceeded to listen rather incredulously as Master Fung told him all of what had transpired. He was quite relieved to learn that the Heylin side was not experimenting with dark magic time travel. On the other hand, he wasn't exactly thrilled to learn that Omi was the one wreaking all the havoc. The young monk's feelings for Chase Young would end up dividing his loyalties if he didn't bring them under control, and soon. To that end, he was in agreement with the fact that Raimundo was the best choice for leader. Raimundo had already taken his walk down the dark path and had ended up rejecting it wholly. He was now committed to being back on the side of good, and didn't seem likely to repeat the mistake.

He declined Master Fung's invitation to come to the naming ceremony, saying that he was sure the young ones were probably restless, and he didn't want to hold them up any more than necessary. He did accept the invitation to come to the grand banquet later that day, however. He then said he would like to bring the new Shoku warrior a small gift and requested to take his leave of the conversation so he could go pick something appropriate out.

After hanging up, he went back into the temple to search through the storeroom of items he kept for the simple reason of being able to hand them out to others who needed them more than he. There were several trinkets he could offer to the young wind dragon, but they would just end up sitting around gathering dust. He considered a few of the other weapons he had. Raimundo would most certainly be able to make use of one of them down the road as his training progressed. After pondering on this for several minutes he ended up rejecting it anyway. He decided he wanted to give Raimundo something that would speak to the fact of his newly acquired status.

He moved down the one wall where he kept some articles of fine clothing. After rifling through the wardrobe closet for a bit, his eye fell on a white robe. He pulled it out and examined it closely. It was snow white with cyan cuffs and collar, and matching sash. A pair of dragons were embroidered, one on each side of the lapel, in matching cyan thread. The craftsmanship was exquisite. It was woven of silk charmeuse and was quite soft to the touch. He smiled. This was exactly what he was looking for. He closed the wardrobe closet doors and walked over to some shelves with boxes and wrapping paper. After making his choices he left the room and went downstairs to wrap his gift.

Sometime later, after putting things in order with his other monks before he departed, he sat down to eat a light lunch. The walk from his temple to Master Fung's would only take a few hours as long as nothing untoward happened.

He poured himself a cup of tea and was just about to take a sip of it when suddenly an elongated wormhole opened up in front of him from seemingly out of nowhere. An arm draped in black material with a red cuff extended forth out of the gash. The hand attached to the arm placed two Shen Gong Wu and a small seed on the table. Then it waved at him and was gone. The slash mark closed back up again and Master Guan sat, dumbfounded, while his cup of tea waited patiently in front of his mouth waiting for him to drink from it.

A creeping sense of doom worked its way into his mind and he abandoned the tea and his lunch, and walked over to the patio door. Sliding it open he went outside and walked out onto the grounds and stopped.

Fluffy white cotton ball shaped clouds scudded across in front of a deep blue sky. The birds were still engaged in a songfest and, across the way, some small woodland creatures were scurrying about near the garden playing at a game of hide and seek. There was no sense of any malice in the air, nothing to suggest that dark angry clouds would soon gather and roll across the sky plunging the land into darkness.

Master Guan shrugged. Weirdness seemed to be the order of the day and there was simply no making any sense of it. For all he knew, Master Fung and the young monks were involved in some odd training session, the point of which he couldn't begin to fathom. He was almost certain the robe and the hand belonged to Raimundo.

Deciding that there was nothing more to be done about the situation, he went back inside. He finished his tea and lunch, and then scooped up the Wu and the Heylin seed. He took them out into his own Wu vault and placed each item in a drawer for safekeeping. Shaking his head, he went back to the temple to let the other monks know he was taking his leave. He retrieved his gift for Raimundo, grabbed his own spear where he kept it propped inside his bedroom door and headed outside to begin his journey.

As he walked his thoughts turned, now and again, to the four young dragons and the future that lay ahead of them. With a leader in place the team should most certainly grow into a cohesive fighting unit. He knew that sometimes tension ran high between the four because of their totally disparate personalities. Raimundo's new position would not just be about heading up the team as they charged into battle. He would also serve as mediator between any disputes that arose between the other three while they were 'out in the field'. He wondered whether Master Fung had informed Raimundo yet that he was going to start being schooled in the art of diplomacy. A smile played at the corners of his mouth as he imagined what the look on Raimundo's face would be.

His footsteps eventually came to a stop at the edge of a small, clear stream that carried some of the freshest, cleanest water in this particular area. He kneeled down and scooped up a few handfuls to drink. As he did so, a familiar spiral shaped slash suddenly appeared in the air on the opposite side of the stream. An entire bag of Wu this time, followed by the Golden Tiger Claws, came sailing through and dropped with a thud, and a few clunks, onto the bank. His intuition started screaming at him and he immediately stood up, and jumped the width of the stream to land next to the bag.

Someone had unfurled the string from the Ying Yo-Yo and wrapped it around a metallic device so as to attach it to the bag. He carefully undid the knot in the string and unwound it from the metal box. Upon turning the shiny item over, the temperature of the blood in his veins plunged into the single digits. It had been a very, very long time since he'd felt this kind of numbing fear, the kind that seeps into your marrow. The box was Kimiko's PDA. On the screen she'd written two short sentences followed by her name.

"**Please help me! In Wu vault with Dojo. Kimiko."**

Only one thought ran through Master Guan's mind. Omi had somehow unbalanced the forces of good and evil with the parallel futures he'd created. The temple had come under siege, the other three dragons had either been captured and/or killed, and now Kimiko was the only one left.

Hastily, he dumped out the contents of the bag and picked through them. He found the Ring of the Nine Dragons and placed it on his finger. He then reloaded the bag minus the Golden Tiger Claws. He ripped open the sky in front of him and jumped in.

The monks in the kitchen nearly upended the pot of soup they were making when Master Guan suddenly fell from the air into their midst. He wasted no time in handing over the Wu bag and ordering them to gather everyone together to lock down the temple at once. He explained only that Master Fung's temple was under attack and he believed that his temple could be next.

He then opened up another portal and jumped through. As he did so, he prayed that he would be in time to find Kimiko still alive.

* * *

About Jack killing Master Guan... Well, we know that Jack had Hannibal, Chase, and Wuya on display at his prison. We found Master Fung and crew inside, and very aged. They never showed Master Guan in the first universe, nor did they mention him, so we really don't know what happened to him. However, I find it very hard to believe that Master Guan would have run off to save his own neck without so much as trying to save the others. So, I'm guessing that he was probably killed in some way while trying to offer protection to the others. Now, I don't know that much about time travel, either, but I'm hoping that it makes sense that when the shockwaves hit him it triggered his own particular 'non-memories' to come to the surface, and that's how he saw what happened to him.

TTFN, Nori


	10. The Domino Effect

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, I give you this chappie.

**The Domino Effect**

Amidst the confusion that occurred after everyone was swept from the vault, Rai managed to find Clay and pulled him over to the edge of the fog so as to give him another order.

"I'm gonna leave! Tell everyone to stay here and keep fighting!"

The words rang in Clay's ears as he watched Rai turn and run away from the mist enshrouded area. Chase and two of the warrior cats rushed past him, mere seconds later, hot on the wind element's tail.

Rai's intention was to draw Chase as far away from the others as he could in the hopes of giving them enough time to dispatch Wuya and Hannibal. He knew that Chase had to be absolutely furious by now that he kept slipping away just at the point when Chase thought he had him pinned down. He wanted to lure Chase into jumping at the opportunity to get him alone. So far it was working like a charm.

Always, he somehow kept just a few steps ahead of the angry half-reptilian man. This was not because the injury to his back had ceased to bother him. He was just getting really good at ignoring the pain. He sensed Chase veer off down a different path which would bring him around behind the building he was running past. The jungle cats were still behind him. As he got to the corner, Chase stepped out and stopped him in his tracks.

Rai yelled in spite of himself and skidded to a halt. He turned to back up against the building, leaning on it for support. His face fell in mock fear as he exuded the realization that he was now trapped. Chase was in front of him and the cats were behind him. There was nowhere left for him to go.

"Please don't kill me. Can't you just turn me into a cat or something?" he pleaded in his best 'scared' voice.

Chase smiled and took a step forward. "I'm not going to do anything right now as I seem to be lacking an audience. Let's go." He grabbed Raimundo roughly and shoved him along as they made their way back to the others.

As they walked along, with Chase prodding him every now and then – which to Rai's mind was entirely unnecessary – he wondered to himself if Chase had any idea of what he'd just done. He couldn't believe that Chase had fallen for his act again. Did he really believe that Rai had run off because he intended to abandon the others in order to preserve his own life?

He tilted his head a bit, trying to pick up any stray sounds that might indicate how the others were doing. The only thing he could detect, however, was silence. The air was eerily still and it whispered to him of things gone awry. An anxious shiver coursed through him as he reached the last building that he and Chase needed to pass in order to place them back in the courtyard at the Wu vault.

Chase shoved him beyond the corner and he walked forward a few steps and then stopped. His jaw dropped slightly in disbelief and shock as he took in the reality of the scene that was laid out in front of him.

All the determined fighting, all the damage they'd inflicted, all the ground they'd gained in those precious minutes back at the patio were lost. Rai saw his first victory in battle crumble like dust and fall to the ground to mingle with the gravel and pebbles under his feet.

Lined up against the wall of the building adjacent to the Wu vault were Master Fung, the elder monks, and his two teammates. They were on the ground in a kneeling position with their hands clasped behind their backs, and standing on guard in front of them were the dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs that Jack had turned back to normal size with the Changing Chopsticks he'd stolen out of Omi's room.

The dinosaurs that were the reason for his worry back in the vault when Omi had first alerted him to the Chopstick's disappearance. It was the scenario he couldn't quite grasp, the backup plan that had now come to fruition.

And then, there was Jack.

Jack, who was the one member of the opposing team that he'd totally lost track of, was now back in the loop, and feeling quite full of himself judging by the triumphant grin on his face.

"Well, well, if it isn't our favorite Xiaolin warrior!" He turned to Hannibal and Wuya. "Look!" he shouted to them, pointing in Rai's direction, "It's the loser leader of the has-beens!" He took a few more steps forward so he could get in Rai's face better. "Oh, yeah! Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius, saves the day once again! Don't you just hate being you right now?"

Raimundo's mouth peeled back in a snarl. He was going to wipe that grin, personally, off of Jack's face.

Jack moonwalked himself back toward the line of dinosaurs, and segued into a shimmy dance. He began 'la-la-ing' to himself, and Rai slid into 'stall' mode. If he could buy himself some time, he could figure out how to get himself and the others out of this mess.

Hannibal bounced forward and began talking to him about how sad it was that he'd fought so valiantly only to have his efforts dashed by his own incompetence. After he finished, Chase started speaking to him about how unfortunate it was that Master Fung's ill choice for leader was now sending them to their own demise.

As Hannibal and Chase each took their turns gloating, Rai paid very little attention to what they were saying. He caught bits and pieces of each of their speeches here and there, which only served to anger him more than he already was. Mainly, he kept his face wrapped in stone, and his eyes locked on Jack and every movement he was making. Jack was paying no attention to him, or the others, or to anything at all for that matter. So wrapped up was he, in his overconfident state, that he had no inkling of the fact that he was moving himself into a position which would give Rai the perfect opportunity to throw this entire situation into turmoil, and allow him to gain the upper hand again.

Chase, Wuya, and Hannibal didn't seem the least bit concerned with the look on Rai's face. Apparently, they must have thought that he was just stewing over his current situation.

How unfortunate for the three of them. They obviously did not understand the nature of the wind. For the wind was quite a temperamental thing. Comprised of equal parts beneficence and destructiveness, the wind was just as likely to roll across your backyard in the form of a gentle, refreshing breeze, as it was to rip your house to splinters and send the remnants scattering into parts unknown.

If Chase Young had bothered to spend even a quarter of the amount of time studying Raimundo that he had spent studying Omi, he might have realized by now that there was something far more sinister going on underneath the wind element's mute facade.

Chase's speech was now at an end and silence rolled across the compound. If he was expecting Rai to make a rebuttal, or say anything at all, he was going to be sorely disappointed.

The little seed of the idea that had presented itself to Rai's mind was flourishing rather nicely, and Jack was almost at the specific point Rai needed him to be. If the image in his peripheral vision was correct, Master Fung was kneeling directly behind where T-Rex was standing. The placement was just too perfect for what he wanted to do.

_Just one moment longer._

Jack took a few more steps over and Rai zeroed in on his hapless target.

A look of sudden fear enveloped Rai's features and he threw his palm out in front of him, in the manner of someone who wants to try and stop another from doing something. He yelled, as loudly as he could, "No, Omi! Don't!"

Everyone turned to look at the bewildered water dragon who was wholly clueless as to why Raimundo would yell such a thing at him.

As everyone turned to look back at Omi, Jack stopped and turned to look forward at Rai. A sense of terror gripped him when he saw the horizontal funnel cloud that was heading right in his direction. He screamed in a girlish sort of way as the mini tornado slammed into his midsection. It propelled him backward into the flank of T-Rex who proceeded to roar loudly in indignation at the assault being inflicted upon his person. He turned to look for the attacker, and Master Fung jumped after him. The line of dinosaurs collapsed into a chaotic mess as their captives sprang forward to join in the fray.

Hannibal and Chase jumped on Rai the instant they realized what was happening and wrestled him to the ground. Rai was having none of it, however, and fought his way out from underneath the pair. He kicked Hannibal away carelessly and turned on Chase.

Chase snapped his fingers and gave the order for his four remaining jungle cats to turn back into their human forms. He then brought all his attention to bear on the young warrior standing before him.

"If I win this fight – "

"No deals. You're on _my_ turf dragon man. This is a no-stakes fight. One of us wins, one of us loses, and that's it. You can't square with that, then you're free to leave."

An angry look clouded Chase's face as he considered Rai's words. The youth, of course, had a point. He was the one who had come here seeking the challenge. So if he really wanted to fight Rai, he was going to have to agree to his terms.

"As you wish."

They squared off and assumed a fighting stance in preparation. Around them, the other members in each of their teams were engaged in their own particular battles, some of them in the name of good to preserve all that was kind and true in the world, and others in the name of evil to throw open the gates of darkness and flood the world with pain and sorrow.

It was now an all-or-nothing, no-holds-barred, knock-down drag-out Xiaolin/Heylin slapdown, and neither side was winning as yet.

It the midst of all this Chase and Raimundo stood, eyes locked on each other in study, trying to discern any sign of weakness that would give them a clue as to where to strike. The simple act of winning would most likely pitch the rest of the battle in the favor of the victor.

The two warriors each took a final cleansing breath.

And then they charged forward.

* * *

The reviews are very much appreciated!

TTFN, Nori


	11. Better Late Than Never

The disclaimer is in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

Sorry this chap is so short. We just need to bring two people into the fight, yet.

**Better Late Than Never**

Master Monk Guan peered over the top step of the vault staircase. Slowly, he ascended the last few steps and stood upright in the chamber. Sight and senses told him that the darkness which had previously occupied the chamber was now gone. He turned and motioned for Kimiko and Dojo to come up the steps and join him.

Quickly, and silently, they ran over to the still open door. There was a fierce battle going on between the Xiaolin side and the remaining Heylin opponents. He walked out onto the top step, and promptly backpedaled into the doorframe as a small dinosaur went sailing past him. Seconds later, one of the elder monks came past with a great airborne leap, accompanied by a robust "_Hah!_"

Master Guan stepped forward again onto the top step. He hunkered down and pulled Kimiko with him. Experienced eyes swept over the battle making a quick assessment of where the most help was needed. Dojo remained inside the doorframe, watching.

The elder monks were fighting the dinosaurs, although several of the little ones were in the process of fleeing, and three of Chase's warriors. Omi and Clay were fighting Hannibal, Wuya and the other warrior. T-Rex was still in the fight as well, inflicting damage wherever he could. Raimundo was currently back-flipping away from Chase, who was on the ground seized with some fit of shaking.

"I will go and assist the elder monks with Chase's warriors. You should help out Clay and Omi."

"What about Rai?"

Master Guan studied the worry etched into Kimi's face. He placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Only Raimundo can fight Chase Young. And only he must defeat him. We cannot interfere."

"But, you said that when you and he fought that time, it lasted for days!"

"Mmmm. I do not believe it will take Raimundo that long."

Her expression seemed to lighten. "You're sure he'll beat him?" she asked hopefully.

Master Guan was silent for a moment. "The wind is not necessarily a more powerful element than the other three in terms of forcefulness. It can also be deceptive at times. Even the most gentle of breezes can overcome you by turning fierce when you least expect it." He paused. "Raimundo is much stronger than even he realizes. I have faith in him."

Kimi looked back out to where Rai and Chase were fighting. That was a nice tactful way of saying he was kind of certain, but not entirely certain. A sort of neutral statement that didn't get her hopes up too much.

She sighed. "I guess I'm ready to go."

Master Guan nodded. They stood up and he raised his fist in the air. "Ring of the Nine Dragons!" Suddenly there were three Guans instead of one.

They descended the stairs and parted ways, each running in opposite directions to join in the fight. Kimi spared a glance over her shoulder to cast a worried look in Rai's direction. Then she turned around and went to join her other two teammates.

* * *

Well, I need to hop on over to Shanequa's review function and thank her for the info on how to get around not being able to upload your chap's to the site. I have been having this problem since Wed. I did post on my own review function and on my profile page. Don't know how many of you may have caught it. It's really frustrating! So now, I'm gonna start doubling up on chap's. because I did say that I wanted ya'll to have the completed story in 17 days, 'cause there are 17 chaps.

Thank you, thank you, for the reviews! I really appreciate them!

Please bear with me, as I struggle with this little site problem.

TTFN, Nori


	12. The Hand That Crushes Your Evil Plans

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

Yay! The all important Rai vs. Chase fight chapter!

**The Hand That Crushes Your Evil Plans**

The first clue that Chase had that this was not going to be your conventional martial arts fight – as if any martial arts fight could be referred to as 'conventional' – was how Raimundo chose to meet his first attack.

He had fought Raimundo before when Rai and his three friends challenged him to get Dojo back. Then, again, when they wanted to retrieve Omi. Several hours ago, in the other universe, he had fought as part of a group against Raimundo. He'd never fought the young wind element one-on-one, though. Not that he felt it mattered. He really wasn't expecting this fight to last much beyond the first few opening moves.

Chase leaped into the air and spun into a roundhouse kick. The usual response that an opponent might take to such an attack would normally be to either block, or dodge it. Not Raimundo. He jumped into the air and rotated into a spin of his own. As he came around to meet Chase's foot, he swept his arm across in front of him. The outside of his fist connected dead center with the outside of Chase's ankle. The force of the blow actually counter-rotated Chase one revolution before he fell onto the ground. His body shuddered and twitched involuntarily as the shockwave traveled up his leg, into his hip, and finally dissipated in the small of his back.

Chase flexed his toes inside his boot. His ankle hurt, but it wasn't exceptionally painful. The fact that he could move his toes was a good sign. Intuition told him that nothing was broken. He rolled over and looked up to find Raimundo standing a few feet away from him.

"You might want to consider keeping your distance."

Chase placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself up, pulling his uninjured leg underneath him for support. The casual, cocky, attitude that had been on display earlier when they had first met outside the temple wall was no longer evident in his opponent. In its place was something darker and more serious. Raimundo's body language suggested a dangerous attitude had come to the fore, which was reflected in the tone of voice he used just now.

"You are hardly qualified to give me advice on my fighting strategy," he said.

Rai smirked at that. "I'm not the one lying on the ground."

Chase pushed himself up into a standing position. He placed some tentative weight on his injured ankle. It hurt, but it wasn't like it was shooting daggers of pain up his leg. Eventually, it would work itself out.

"So I chose to start with something more familiar to gage your approach," he lied. "It was an error on my part, and I can admit that. It won't happen again."

"You know what I think? I think you're upset because I beat the tar out of you, and your friends over there, this morning," Rai said, hooking his thumb in the direction of Wuya and Hannibal. "I think you came back for a rematch."

"_You_ did not beat me. That was a different Raimundo, and a different Chase, belonging to the universe Omi created. I am not that Chase. And you, most certainly, are not that Raimundo."

Rai gritted his teeth as he struggled with the anger boiling up within him. He shut his eyes momentarily and willed himself to chill out. He was better than Chase was insinuating. He knew he was. He was just as good as the Raimundo that had existed in both of the parallel universes he'd witnessed.

If he failed, on this day, and the balance of power shifted to the side of evil, the darkness would start spreading. It wouldn't just be his friends and masters here that would suffer. Eventually, it would reach his family in Brazil. He was not going to allow that to happen.

Rai felt his resolve harden within him. He released the last vestiges of control he was exerting over his senses, and the door to his mind's eye opened again. Without any warning or indication at all, he tore off from where he was standing into a full tilt run toward Chase.

Chase was ready for him this time. He deflected Raimundo's attack, turning it back onto him before segueing into a more aggressive attack of his own. He began to press the youth backward with a string of offensive moves, trying to force him to stay on the defensive. As the fight flowed from attack to defense and back again, he became increasingly agitated over the fact that Raimundo seemed to evade and block his moves with more ease than he should have been capable of. The young man got in a few good hits too. With every punch or kick that hit its mark, Chase felt a measure of power behind it. Sometime, in these last few months, Raimundo had gotten better. A lot better.

Chase grabbed Raimundo's wrists and jumped off the ground, twisting over to pull him into a horizontal spin. Imagine his surprise when he found himself being slammed onto the ground. He lurched up off the concrete and turned to find his opponent. The two of them locked eyes.

"That was a really stupid move to try on a wind element," Rai said. "I would suggest you don't do it again."

"I told you, I'm not interested in your advice!" he snarled.

"Well, somebody needs to give you some! I mean, seriously, dude, you're not doin' so good, are you?"

An exasperated, angry growl escaped Chase's throat. He drew out a small wooden staff from the back of his armor. He thumbed at something on the stick and then pulled at both ends, extending it to its full length. It was the spear he usually used to fight Master Monk Guan. He began twirling it casually and started advancing on the young Shoku warrior.

"That isn't fair!" Rai yelled. "I don't have my spear. I don't even have my blade thanks to you!"

"A true warrior is able to fight, against any opponent, bearing any weapon, under any circumstances," Chase replied calmly. "Let's see how well your master's assessment of you stands up."

Raimundo glared back at Chase. _Fine, let's play dirty, then…_

He spared a quick glance at his surroundings. The only thing he saw that he could use as a weapon, was the pile of rubble that used to be the wall, and part of the tile roof, of one of the buildings. This was courtesy of T-Rex, who had finally thundered off a little while ago. Unfortunately, Chase was standing between him and the pile. He also noticed that all the other little dinosaurs were gone as well. And for some reason, everyone else had stopped fighting, and was staring at him and Chase.

Raimundo decided that his next move would be to stand his ground. Master Fung and Master Guan were excellent teachers and, contrary to what everyone else probably believed about him, he had learned his lessons well. Balance and stillness were also martial arts skills, and he would utilize them now against his foe.

He eyed Chase warily as the half-reptilian man came toward him, but he refused to budge. His timing would be a critical factor in whether he managed to take the spear from Chase, or get himself sliced open by it. He tensed as Chase came to a stop, and settled the spear into a two handed grip. The time for thinking was over. He needed to trust his instincts and react without hesitation to Chase's attack.

Chase ran forward and jumped up so that he was slightly above Rai's head. Rai dropped into a crouch, and Chase swung the spear with a vengeance, bringing it down full force on top of the youth's head. He saw Rai twist away to the side in an attempt to get out from under him. He felt a tug on the end of the spear, and suddenly his feet disconnected from the ground. The next thing he knew, he was on his back, and the spear was gone.

He stared disbelieving up at the empty blue sky. He raised his arms in front of his face. There was no spear there. He got up and whirled around on his foe. He didn't even try to keep the building fury inside of him from showing on his face. Rai was standing some distance away, one hand on his hip. The other hand held the spear, twirling it casually, mirroring the way Chase himself had done only moments ago.

Rai stopped the twirling motion and banged the blunt end of the spear onto the ground. "I seem to have acquired something that used to belong to you," he said. His tone was confidant and barbed, meant to stick Chase in the one place where it would hurt the most – his pride.

Chase closed his fingers against his hands making them into fists. He hadn't sold his soul to the Heylin side, and spent the last fifteen hundred years of his life laying out plans for total evil world domination, just to travel here today and be defeated by some insolent whelp of a teenage boy. Since he seemed to be at a stalemate with him, relying only on his martial arts skills, he would employ a deadlier method to bring Raimundo down. He raised his hands over his head and snapped his fingers. Twin flames erupted into the air.

Across the way, Rai tapped the sharp end of the spear on the ground. He brought it up and laid it against his shoulder, taking up a batter's stance.

Chase placed his palms together with the flame between them, and then began pulling them apart. As he did so, a dark energy fireball grew between them.

Rai concentrated on the spear lying against his shoulder. He told the spear that it was his weapon now and he would wield it however he pleased. He focused his feelings on channeling a portion of his elemental and chi energies into the spear even as he kept his eyes on his foe.

Chase hurled the dark powered fireball at Raimundo.

A wicked grin crossed Rai's face. "Incoming!" he yelled. He swung the fortified spear. It met the dark, roiling power and smacked it back in Chase's direction. He hadn't even been singed.

And that, finally, was the last straw for Chase. He morphed into his dragon form with a roar and punched his fist through the fiery ball of dark energy. It split in half and streamed around him, rolling away and dissipating into the air.

Rai dropped the spear and turned sideways to reach behind him to the pile of rubble. He'd turned himself and Chase around in his successful attempt to get the spear. Now he was standing in front of the demolished wall.

"Wind!" he shouted.

Bricks and blue tile stirred from where they were lying and rose up into the air like a wave. Rai swept his arm forward and the rubble formed up in rows to follow the movement, sailing forward to create a blockade against the furious dragon man.

Chase dove into the wall of bricks and tile. "Monkey smashing plates!" he yelled. "Ox stomping rats!" He twisted and turned, this way and that, calling out other fighting moves, while bashing and kicking at the oncoming wave of wall-and-roof-turned-ammo being thrown at him. He was driven by one singular purpose now – to bring Raimundo down with a most painful ending.

A flash of red and black moved into his view just beyond the last rows of airborne rubble. It was directly in the center of his vision. He altered his body slightly to a different angle to meet it head on. He knocked the last few tiles out of his way giving him a clear shot at the wind dragon.

"Tiger kills rabbit!" he yelled.

"Tiger needs glasses!" Rai shouted in response. He threw his fist forward in a punch, and a wind-fist shot out and away from his hand. It slammed into Chase, connecting with his mid-section in a diaphragm crushing blow. The wind-fist remained solid as it hurled him backwards, traversing the entirety of the courtyard they stood in, and slammed him into the building on the opposite side.

The force of the impact crushed the bricks behind his body making an indented outline of his form. Grey ash sifted away and curled into the air. The building shook from foundation to roof, dislodging a mass of blue roof tiles. They slid down and fell onto the ground in a pile. Chase's body peeled away from the wall and fell forward to lie, inert, on top of the tiles.

Rai folded his arms across his chest and smirked. "I ain't no stinkin' rabbit," he said.

And suddenly, just like that, it was over.

* * *

Whew! Well, thank heaven that's finally over! Yay! Rai is so _totally_ my favorite character!

I hope I did a pretty decent job of keeping Chase in character in this. The way they wrote him in the show, he usually is good about keeping his temper under control as long as he possibly can. Of course, he had the whole 'in denial' thing going on thinking that Rai couldn't possibly beat him. And then, he finally snapped and morphed into dragon form. The other thing I didn't want to do is get too grandiose with it. I could have gone off and tried to write all kinds of fancy 'big' type stuff, but I thought maybe I should keep it under control so it would sound more believable. I really hope I succeeded!

Anyway, now that I know how to get the chap's up and posted, using the little trick that Shanequa found out about, I should be able to continue getting the chaps to you in a timely manner.

Thanks for all the reviews! I really, really appreciate them!

TTFN, Nori


	13. The Agony Of Victory

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

**The Agony Of Victory**

The sound of silence settled in over the compound. On one side of Rai, his masters and the elder monks stood with placid looks on their faces, seemingly not at all surprised at the outcome of the fight. On the other side of him, Kimiko, Clay, and Omi stared at him, wide-eyed and in awe for the same reason.

Hannibal and Wuya were stricken with shock, as were Chase's four warriors. The only other person that they knew of that had defeated their master before was Master Monk Guan. They knew that their master hardly considered this young warrior to be in the same league as the master monk. Perhaps he had made a mistake. They would never dare say that to him, however.

Raimundo took a few tentative steps toward where Chase lay. He was almost certain that the man was down and out for the count, but he didn't want to get too close in case he was wrong. There probably was a way to determine whether your opponent was truly unconscious, and he'd have to ask Master Fung about it later.

At the sight of the Shoku warrior advancing on their master, the four warriors shook themselves from their state of shock and rushed in to line up in front of Rai, creating a human barrier between him and their fallen master.

Rai rolled his eyes. "Look," he said, "I'm not gonna do anything else to him, okay? Just take him and go."

The warriors looked at each other and then back at Rai, trying to decide if they could trust to turn their backs on him.

Rai made a shooing gesture at them. "Go, go!" he exclaimed. _Geez, get outta my face already…._

Again, the warriors looked at each other and shrugged. Then, they turned around and picked Chase up and walked off.

Master Guan watched studiously as the warriors left, cradling Chase's unmoving form between them. His rival would be chewing on this bitter pill for quite some time to come. His and Chase's perceptions of Raimundo were as different as night and day. Chase saw Raimundo as a discourteous, undisciplined youth who needed to be beaten down into submission so he wouldn't grow up to become a thorn in his side. Master Guan however, saw Rai as a clever, headstrong young man who would grow up to become a cunning, relentless foe. If Chase didn't learn his lesson from this day, he would eventually learn an even harsher one later on down the road.

Rai squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the heels of his hands into the temples of his forehead. His head was starting to pound, and his back, which he hadn't taken much notice of during the fight, was burning with pain again. The adrenaline that had sustained his stamina during the fight was draining away from him now that it was over. He could feel himself beginning to falter, and he still had to deal with Hannibal and Wuya yet.

Kimiko was the first to notice that he was starting to turn pale. They needed to get over there and prop him up, or Hannibal and Wuya would jump on him like he was wounded prey.

"Come on!" she said. "We need to do some damage control!"

Clay followed after her while Omi remained still and hesitant. To say that his long-held beliefs about Raimundo's skill and abilities had been smashed to bits would be an understatement. He was feeling rather small and insignificant right now, and he wasn't at all sure that he should be standing anywhere near Raimundo's personal space. The others didn't seem to have any qualms though, so he dredged up a determined look and plastered it on his face, and finally ran off after the other two.

They fanned out in front of Rai and cast watchful eyes in the direction of their remaining two Heylin opponents.

Hannibal rubbed his tendrils together. "Well, I guess that's our cue."

Wuya put her hand on his shoulder. "There's no point in going over there and confronting them."

"Why not? Look at him. He's soon gonna fall over."

"He may be injured, but Guan is not. And, he's got the Ring of the Nine Dragons, remember? I don't feel like facing off against nine Guans."

Hannibal rubbed at his chin with one of his tendrils. "Hmmmmm. Well, I can still go over there and threaten him or somethin'." He bounced away leaving Wuya behind shaking her head.

As she suspected, Master Fung and Master Guan immediately moved in to shore up the defensive line the other three had created.

"I got somethin' I wanna to say to you, boy."

Rai placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah? Well, spit it out. I ain't got all day you know. I got other stuff I could be doing."

"I just want you to know that I'm already plannin' your demise."

Rai dropped his arms against his sides and looked annoyed. "That's it? That's what you had to come over here and say to me?" He made a face and repeated Hannibal's words back at him, only in gibberish, and with a mocking tone. He put his hands back on his hips. "You're lamer than Chase," he said. "Get lost. I'm hungry, and you've held up my lunch long enough."

Hannibal ground his teeth together and pushed back the wave of rage he was feeling. How _dare_ he speak to him in such a casually flippant way. "You mark my words, boy," he said, in his best threatening tone of voice. Then he turned abruptly and bounced away.

"Yeah, whatever," Rai responded. He fell silent, then, and watched him bounce away with Wuya. As soon as they were out of eyesight, he wrapped his arms around himself, and allowed his legs to collapse underneath him.

Everyone ran over and crowded around him, fussing over him in his injured state.

Master Fung shouldered his way in to kneel in front of him. "Raimundo, do you think you can walk to the healing temple?"

"Yeah. Kimiko needs to go too."

He began helping Rai to his feet. "We'll see that she is tended to."

"And I don't know if Clay and Omi are hurt."

Slowly he turned him so that they were facing in the direction of the healing temple. "They appear to be fine."

"And what if Hannibal and Wuya come back?"

With one arm around his waist and the other being clung to by Rai, they began walking. "I believe that Master Guan will assist us if necessary."

"I don't see Dojo anywhere."

"I am sure that he will reappear in due time."

"Does anyone know where that idiot Spicer – ."

"Raimundo…_hush_."

* * *

Yay! I got another chap. up!

I need to try and answer PigXiaolin101's question. I'm guessing that maybe you were wondering if the Rai/Chase fight chap was something different outside the main story I was writing? If so, then no, it isn't. The Rai/Chase fight was just the official ending to the battle as a whole. The world itself wasn't _necessarily_ in danger, the monks were. (Of course, if I had written that the monks lost, then the world would have been in danger). At the end of Season 3 everybody showed up outside the temple wall to confront the monks because, (I'm guessing) they considered them more of a serious threat now that a leader was named, and they wanted to do away with them. The story I'm writing is my particular imagining of the battle and the aftermath. Since it's soooooo long, it naturally had to get broken up into a chapter style story.

HI! (waves) to all my reviewers! Thanks for reading my story and leaving comments! I really appreciate them! If there is anyone else who is reading my story and hasn't left a comment yet, please do so! It's free! Won't cost you a cent!

TTFN, Nori


	14. Passages

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

A very, very long chappie, in which Rai is not happy with the temple docs, reflects on life changes, and gets to play Go Fish with Dojo…..

**Passages**

Rai grimaced as he swallowed another small mouthful of the tea the healers had given him. He was beginning to think that they were tormenting him on purpose, trying to gage his mental and emotional state to see if he would either crack, or hold up, under their so-called treatment.

When they first brought him into the infirmary, they laid him on a massage table on his stomach. They poked and prodded his back to see if they could determine whether he had any cracked or broken ribs. Or, at least, that's what they told him. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Rai wondered if they weren't just trying to see how loudly they could get him to yell.

Having decided that there was no serious injury, they took him over to a tub of hot water and sunk him down in it, telling him that the heat would relax his muscles and undo the knots. The heat of the water made him sleepy, and he was just on the verge of dozing off, when they returned and fished him back out. They took him over to a high backed chair, slapped an ice pack the size of a small island down between him and the chair back, and leaned him against it.

After freezing his back to roughly the average temperature of a popsicle, they placed him back on the massage table. They rubbed an absolutely horrendous smelling linament on his back, and wrapped his torso in bandages. Then they took him through a connecting door into a large room, laid out like a hospital ward, with rows of twin sized platform beds, separated by privacy screens.

Into the corner, next to the door, they took him, and sat him down on the edge of a bed. One of them left and came back with this tea. They wouldn't even put sugar in it for him. They said he had to drink it straight. For a fleeting moment, he actually considered breaking down and crying to see if he could wring any kind of sympathy from them. He decided against it, though, for no reason other than sheer stubborness. So far, Hannibal hadn't been able to break him, and neither had Chase. He was going to be darned if the healers were going to break him.

He took another small mouthful of the tea and forced himself to swallow it.

"Bleah."

He began listing to one side, and he wondered why he was feeling so warm and fuzzy all of a sudden. It was becoming hard for him to concentrate and think straight.

One of the healers pulled the tea out of his hands, and some still functioning instinct told him that he'd been just about to drop it. Then it hit him – they'd put something in the tea that would knock him out and put him to sleep. He couldn't make his brain work well enough to conjure up an insult to fling at them. His eyelids slammed shut and the lights went out.

The healers rolled him over and laid him gently on the bed. They laid two blankets on top of him to keep him warm and toasty. The tea they'd given him would keep him down for about three to four hours. When he woke up, he would feel well rested and refreshed, and his head and back wouldn't be hurting him anymore.

Of course, whether or not he'd be angry enough to hurt _them_ remained to be seen.

xsxsxsxs

The muted sound of stone grinding against stone made a faint acoustic echo in the immediate area of the Wu vault where Omi stood with his friends and Master Guan.

"That is the last of them," he said, pushing the drawer shut.

He, Clay, and Kimiko had scoured the grounds, following the trail of water that had burst from the vault in their successful escape attempt. They found most of the pieces of Mala Mala along the way, and had been temporarily stymied by why they were still missing the rest of him, along with Raimundo's Blade of the Nebula. Master Guan had returned just in time, having retrieved the bag of Wu, to ask them if they'd thought to look in the vault itself in case anything remained behind. Upon returning, they found the rest of Mala Mala and Raimundo's blade lodged against the wall in various places. Now that the Wu were returned, they were left staring at each other in silence wondering what they should do next.

"I reckon we ought to go and find Master Fung," Clay said.

"Yeah," Kimiko began, "maybe he can give us something to do to keep our – , " she frowned and stopped abruptly. She was about to say 'minds off of Raimundo'.

Master Guan anticipated the rest of her unvoiced sentence. "I am certain that Raimundo will make a full recovery."

"Do you think we can go see him?" Clay asked.

"I don't think it would hurt, if you were quiet, but you should still ask Master Fung," he replied.

They went back outside and found themselves walking through the courtyard once again. Omi's feet seemed to pull him over to the building with Chase's outlined form imbedded in the wall. He stopped a few feet in front of it and stared.

In his mind, he ran back over those last, few moves of the fight. Raimundo had actually repelled a Heylin energy attack without suffering any damage. He had wielded a power that Omi hadn't previously believed he was capable of. He wondered now if, perhaps, this was part of the reason why Raimundo viewed most of the chores, and some of the training, as a waste of his time. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he must have known that he possessed a greater power than he was given credit for, and harbored feelings of being slighted. In any event, he was out in front now, and Omi knew he needed to find a way to resign himself to this fact.

Master Guan finally walked over to where Omi was standing. "Omi?" He asked.

Omi sighed. "I am fine," he replied. "I may, possibly, be feeling a bit sorry for myself."

Master Guan smiled. "I have often found that the antidote for sorrowful feelings is to keep oneself busy. As Kimiko was saying, perhaps Master Fung can find something for you to do so you can keep your minds off of things."

"But first, maybe we can visit Raimundo?"

"Yes, first we will see if we can visit Raimundo." He placed his arm across Omi's shoulders, then, and gently steered him around and back in the direction they had been heading.

xsxsxsxs

The sun was just a few hours away from meeting the horizon when Raimundo finally stirred from his induced state of sleep. His mind was sluggish at best, from the herbs the healers had given him, and it took a few minutes for him to fully awaken. He folded his hands under his head and, for a long time, lay staring blankly at the ceiling at the wooden beams that supported the roof. His intention was to allow his mind to unwind and clear itself, pushing the cobwebs away. Unfortunately, one of the beams had a crack in it. This wasn't just a little hairline crack. No, it was a gash that rended the beam lengthwise for at least a good three feet. As hard as he tried to pull his eyes away from it, he couldn't. It annoyed him terribly to the point of becoming offensive. Catastrophic visions of how it might come to pass that the beam would be stricken, and crack fully apart, passed through his mind at the sight of it. Any of the scenarios he entertained would produce the result of the entire roof caving in, thereby trapping and/or injuring the healers.

He threw his arm over his face so he couldn't see it anymore and groaned inwardly. The question over what to do about the beam hammered at him, until he could no longer avoid the harsh reality of what he knew to be the truth. He was going to have to tell Master Fung that they needed to add replacing the beam to the already long list of seemingly endless chores that they struggled with on a daily basis.

It was in this way, then, that the slow realization of what he was already becoming made itself known to him. It was only inevitable, after all. It was a change that he couldn't avoid no matter how much he might have wanted to.

He, Raimundo Pedrosa, had now stepped over the line and 'gone over to the other side'. This is to say, he was now a member of management. No more could he engage in prankish behavior against Clay, make fun of Omi because he was clueless, or hijack Kimiko's technology and plant red herrings or viruses in it. No, from now on he would need to start behaving responsibly.

Behave. Responsible. He turned the words over in his mind. Two words that were always a central sticking point with his parents, and with good reason.

He'd never gotten around to asking Kimiko, Clay, and Omi how they'd first reacted when they realized they had this strange power. He remembered thinking that it was way cool that he could manipulate the air like that. Of course, being untrained as he was back then, the most he could do was create a gentle breeze, and levitate lightweight items. The discovery served to embolden the more devious part of his nature, which didn't help matters any. Oh, the mischief he created, and the trouble he got himself into. Those days would never come back around again.

He pushed the covers back and sat up. He always knew that, eventually, his misbegotten ways would have to die. Why was he suddenly so sad over it? A few stray tears escaped him as the weight of the world resettled itself on his shoulders. He sighed and wiped them away, and grabbed at the plain, cotton robe the healers had left for him at the bottom of the bed. He pulled it on and wrapped it around himself protectively, and sat quietly for a few minutes, this time staring at the floor. Mercifully, no cracks or gouges, or other deformities in the surface, leaped into his field of view to torment him further. Then, he got up and wandered off in search of a wash room so he could get a shower.

xsxsxsxs

Clay toed the switch on the vacuum cleaner to turn it off, and pulled the plug from the wall. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm declarin' myself to be done." He began wrapping the cord up and attached it back onto the vacuum.

"Yeah, talk about an all-consuming project," Kimiko said.

"I am most tired," Omi said, "and hungry."

Clay pulled the vacuum around the corner of the hall toward the storage closet. "You and me both, little partner," he called over his shoulder.

Omi scanned over their newly rearranged sleeping quarters, and then up at the clock on the wall. This project that Master Fung gave them had taken up all of the rest of their afternoon to complete. They had just enough time left to shower and change, for the second time today, and get over to the grand hall for the banquet. Master Fung and Master Guan had come to check on them, and praised them on their handiwork. Master Fung then said he was heading over to the healing temple to see if Raimundo had awakened yet.

"You know," Kimiko said, "it's gonna be weird not having Rai here anymore."

"Yeah," Clay agreed. "I wonder how he'll react when he sees we've kicked 'im out."

"I am almost certain that he will be covered over with much happiness."

Clay and Kimiko stared blankly at Omi. As usual, they had no idea what he was saying, and were racking their brains trying to come up with a translation.

Finally Clay said, "I'm gonna go out on a limb and venture that 'he'll be overcome with joy'."

"Well, as much as I hate to say this, I hope he is," Kimiko said. "It's not that I don't want him to be here with us anymore. It's just that it's so cool that we have so much more room. I mean, look," she said, pointing to her own cubicle, "I have enough space now that I can put in another rack of clothing!"

Behind her, Clay and Omi looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

xsxsxsxs

Raimundo drummed his fingers on the table top and his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he regarded the small green reptile sitting across from him.

"Dojo, it doesn't take this long to figure out whether you have a four or not."

Dojo stuck his chin out in defiance. "I'm just thinking," he said.

"If you're thinking so much, then I'll bet Clay's last dollar that you have a four and you're trying to decide whether or not you wanna tell me."

Dojo risked a quick glance in Rai's direction, but remained silent.

"That's cheating, Dojo. And I should know. Now gimme the four." Rai leaned across the table and leveled his best intimidating look at Dojo. "_Or else_," he said threateningly.

Dojo shrank away from the seemingly angry Shoku warrior and pulled out the four. He offered it to Raimundo, who smiled and added it to his hand. He was just about to ask Dojo if he had a seven when there came a knock at the door. "Come in," he said.

The door opened and Master Fung stepped through. He smiled at the sight of his protégé, freshly showered, and redressed in his equally freshly cleaned Shoku outfit. "Ah, Raimundo, I came to check on you earlier, but you were in the wash room. You look quite well rested. How do you feel?"

"Oh, I feel great," Rai answered, a hint of sarcasm notable in his voice, "thanks to that nice cup of tea the healers gave me." He motioned to a plate of cookies resting off to the side. "Would you believe that they gave me these cookies to placate me so I wouldn't be so angry with them. I mean, seriously, just because I might think about hurting them doesn't mean I would actually do it."

"Yes, well, they were only following my orders," Master Fung said. "I thought it best that you recovered from your injury as soon as possible."

Rai studied his master's face. There was something else lurking underneath that sentence. "You think they might come back tonight yet, don't you?"

"Master Guan has graciously offered to remain here until the morning."

Rai frowned. That was a roundabout way of saying 'yes', but the real underlying meaning was the same, nonetheless. Master Fung was concerned that, if Chase found himself sufficiently healed by this evening, he might decide to make a return trip for revenge purposes.

Rai laid his cards on the table and looked at Dojo. "I guess our game is over, Dojo."

Dojo sniffled. "Can I have my four back?"

Rai rolled his eyes. "Yes, Dojo. Here." He got up and walked over to stand next to Master Fung.

"Oh, and, um, by the way," Master Fung said, "Chucky Choo will be joining us."

Dojo looked positively aghast. "What?"

"Well...you see...Master Guan asked if it would be all right for Chucky to participate in the festivities, and...I told him it would be okay."

Dojo gritted his teeth and made a valiant effort to remain calm. Alas, it was not to be. His eye began to twitch and his front feet curled themselves into fists. His whole body began to quiver. It started at his shoulders and worked its way down to his tail. Finally, he found his voice again. When he spoke, it started out in a normal tone and ended in a shout.

"You...invited...that...stinking..._yo-yo thief?_"

"Now, now Dojo. Calm down," Rai said. "I'm sure that Chucky won't make any trouble."

Dojo's face contorted in anger. "Oh, maybe he won't. But _I will!_"

He jumped off his chair, abandoning his cards, and ran toward the door as fast as his front feet would take him.

Master Fung put his foot down on Dojo's tail, bringing him to a screeching halt. He bent over and picked him up. "Dojo," he said firmly, "you will behave. You will do nothing to ruin this evening for us. Do you understand?"

Dojo folded his arms across his chest and looked properly annoyed. "Fine," he answered.

Master Fung put Dojo on his shoulder and they all headed out the door. As they walked down the hall, the wheels in Dojo's mind began turning. Maybe he had to behave himself this time, so everybody wouldn't get mad at him for disturbing their little get-together. But, the next time…..oh, the next time…..

* * *

Awwwwww, poor Dojo...

This is my 2nd favorite chapter out of the whole story, with the Rai/Chase fight chapter being 1st.

After this, it's on to the banquet!

TTFN, Nori


	15. Sweet Dreams

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

**Sweet Dreams**

"Are you ready?"

Rai tugged at the collar of the tee shirt he wore under his Shoku tunic. It could just be his imagination, but he felt as though it had grown awfully tight around his neck all of a sudden. "I guess I'm about as ready as I'm going to be," he said, a tremor of panic noticeable in his voice, as he answered Master Fung's question.

Master Fung placed his hands on Raimundo's shoulders and smiled. "You will do fine." He turned and walked past the ornately carved doors into the grand dining hall. Raimundo followed a few steps behind him, in awe of the array of food that had been laid out for them. The food covered the table, from one end to the other, and was next to the table at which they were going to be sitting. It all looked so delicious. How was he ever going to decide where to start?

As soon as his teammates saw him, they ran over to greet him.

"It's about time you got here," Clay said, good-naturedly. "We're starvin', but we had to wait until you showed up to eat!"

"You look most well, Raimundo," Omi said. "How are you feeling?"

"Never better!" he replied, with a 'thumbs up'.

"We're glad you're okay," Kimiko said. "You had us worried there for a while."

"Aw, it takes more than some injured muscles to get me down," he said.

The sound of Master Fung clearing his throat ended the conversation. "Gotta go," Rai said. He walked quickly over to join Master Fung at the head of the table.

"I would like to begin by saying how truly glad I am that we are all well and accounted for, and present for this special feast tonight," the master said. "The reason for this banquet, as you know, is to celebrate the fact that we now have a Shoku warrior to help lead the other dragons in our continued fight against the forces of evil. Those forces, the collected whole of all those whom we have had the unfortunate displeasure of getting to know over the past two years, showed up on our doorstep on the heels of the naming ceremony. Within their defeat today, lies confirmation that the correct choice was made. Let us welcome the Shoku warrior into our midst."

Master Fung stepped over a few inches and inclined his head in Raimundo's direction. Rai stepped in to fill the vacated space as all eyes turned toward him. He swallowed. He willed himself to keep his hands down at his sides, so he wouldn't start twiddling his fingers in nervousness.

"Well, I guess the first thing I want to say is that I'm very honored that this amount of trust has been placed in me." He turned to address Master Fung specifically, which helped to calm him slightly. "Thank you," he said. "I will try very hard to keep all your training and words of wisdom in mind, and to be the best leader I can." He turned back to the rest of the group, and motioned in the direction of his friends. "Omi, Clay, Kimiko, you guys are the best. I'm real glad that you're the ones I get to fight with. And you, too, Dojo." He smiled at the small mystical reptile. "I thought you were very brave the way you tackled Cyclops." Dojo grinned at the comment, and Chucky Choo looked at him curiously. Rai turned to address his other, sometimes master, standing on the other side of Master Fung. "Master Guan, I'd like to thank you for taking us in a while back and giving us some extra training. We all learned a lot from you and I believe it really helped us today."

Okay, he was almost done. He just had to come up with something to say to the elders. "Um, to the elders, I guess I should say thanks for helping Master Fung to find the four of us – um, actually, the three of us – and bringing us together here with Omi." He plastered a cheery smile on his face and turned to Master Fung.

The look of desperation in his eyes told Master Fung that he was quite finished talking. The master walked over, and put his hands back onto Raimundo's shoulders to calm him down. "I believe our young dragon has spoken rather nicely for his first time. Now, let us fill our plates and engage in fellowship with one another as we celebrate the good fortune visited on us this day."

Rai took a deep breath, and let it out. Thank heaven that was over. That had to be the worst five minutes of his life. Now he could concentrate on stuffing his face and listening to everybody else talk.

He walked over to the buffet table and picked up a plate. As the one who was being honored, he got to have first dibs on the food. He made his way down the table, taking a spoonful of this, and a tongsful of that, until he ended up where the tacos were. He plucked one from the dish and laid it on top of the mountain of food he'd collected. He patted it down to make sure it would stay in place as he went back to the dining table.

Clay smiled in admiration at Raimundo's plate as he walked past. "Now that there is a thing of beauty," he said. He inhaled the scent wafting through the air. "Oooeee, and it smells good, too. I'm gonna make me a plate like that."

Kimiko looked at Omi. "Maybe we should go before Clay to make sure there's actually some food left for us to eat."

Clay looked down at her and grinned. "You all go right ahead. Everything that's left is fair game for me." Then he gave them a friendly push, and they walked over to get in line.

Discussion over how good the food was, and animated conversation over how exciting the afternoon's battle was, permeated the atmosphere of the banquet. As Master Guan was filled in on the beginning and middle parts that he had missed, the earlier worry that the battle had created seemed to dissolve, and was replaced by more confidant feelings. Namely, from the four young warriors themselves, who declared that they were now ready to tackle anything that came their way.

Dojo got into the act himself. He had Chucky Choo's full attention and was regaling him with the story of how he'd saved the day by routing the Heylins with his fiery breath, and chasing off Cyclops, after Raimundo yelled to him for help. "He turned to me!" Dojo said. "Me! And I didn't let him down either! I came through for him!" He wiped at his eyes and sniffled. "I always knew I had it in me!"

Chucky Choo patted Dojo on the back. "You're a very brave dragon, Dojo. Why, I feel brave just sitting next to you."

"Really?" Dojo asked.

"Of course!" Chucky replied. Actually, he didn't entirely believe everything Dojo had said. Being a master of exaggerated tales himself, he could tell an embellished story when he heard one. But, considering all the trouble he'd caused with the family yo-yo, and the fact that he was trying to reform, he figured he owed Dojo that much.

After Raimundo finished polishing off his second plate of food, Master Guan excused himself, and returned a few minutes later with a plainly wrapped package. He offered it to Raimundo who exclaimed, "Ooo, a present! I like getting presents!" He opened the box and pulled out, what was to him, the most beautiful silk robe he'd ever seen. Everyone oohed and aahed over it, and he finally put it on so everyone could see him in it. The material pooled on the floor at his feet, and the cuffs extended past his fingertips. A few muffled snickers from his teammates carried back to his ears, and corner of his mouth twisted in annoyance.

Master Guan propped his chin in his hand and studied the robe and Raimundo. "Hmmmm, somehow, I must have thought he was taller."

"Actually, I believe he was taller this afternoon," Master Fung said.

"Yes. By a few inches, I think." Master Guan placed his hand in the air above Rai's head. "Hmmmm, he must have shrunk."

The statement turned the snickers into laughter and Rai's eyes flattened out in exasperation. Great, now they were just making fun of him.

"Give the robe to the menders before they leave," Master Fung said. "Ask them to pull in the excess material and tack it. That way you can wear it until you grow into it."

As the last rays of daylight faded into dusk, and the food supply began to dwindle, the banquet started to wind down. The elder monks, and several of the other monks, excused themselves to make ready to turn in for the night. Little by little, the other remaining monks also left until the only ones still eating and talking were the two masters, the four resident warriors, and two very sleepy little dragons.

An immense yawn escaped from Dojo's mouth. He regarded his friends through bleary eyes. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to hit the sack."

Omi looked at him questioningly. "Why would you want to hit a sack?"

Master Fung smiled. "It _is_ getting late. We should all get a good night's rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

The two tables were cleared of their contents, and cleaned, and the leftover food stored. They made their way back to the building which housed their sleeping quarters, and Master Fung spoke as they walked down the hall. "There is one more thing which needs to be done, Raimundo. I dare say everyone knows about it but you."

Rai followed after him with a puzzled look on his face, but didn't say anything. They rounded the corner where their sleeping cubicles were and walked into the room. Rai's mouth dropped open and he stared in astonishment at the cubicles. Where there used to be four, there were now three. The two center partitions had been moved to make the cubicles wider. Inside each one there was now a plain, twin-sized, platform bed, much like the ones he saw in the healing temple's ward. Rai shook himself from his daze. There was something he wanted to say about this, if he could find the right words.

"But…..I….." he stammered. "_Where's my stuff?_" he finally exclaimed.

"Master Fung had us clean it out," Clay said with a big grin. He elbowed Rai. "More room for us!"

"I gotta sleep_ somewhere!_" Rai shouted.

"And so you shall," Master Fung replied. "Follow me, please."

They walked out the other side of the room and turned the corner into the adjacent hall. They stopped about a quarter of the way down in front of a closed door. Master Fung opened it and reached in to flick the light switch. He stepped back and motioned for Rai to go in.

Rai frowned and walked forward into the door frame. The frown vanished and a slow grin spread its way across his face. Inside the room was a twin-sized platform bed, much like the ones in the cubicles. The difference was that this one had a low, open-work design headboard attached. There was a nightstand with a lamp next to the bed, and there was a dresser against the inside wall. Along the opposite wall were his surfboard and his other belongings. At the foot end of the bed was a small round table and two chairs. In one of the chairs sat Ninja Fred. The room was not huge by any means; it was sort of on the smallish to middling side, actually. But to Raimundo, if he was interpreting this whole thing properly, it couldn't have been any more perfect.

"This…..is really mine?" he asked.

"Yes, Raimundo," Master Fung said. "You now have a room of your own, just as the others have more room for themselves." He turned to the side slightly to include Clay, Kimiko, and Omi in what he was saying. "And you have all earned it."

"Master Fung, Clay, Omi, Kimiko, thanks. This is really great, and I really appreciate it," Rai said. "Do you know that I've never had a room of my own? I mean, I have seven siblings. All the rooms were shared." He paused. "Actually, it might take a while for me to get used to this. Are you sure you guys don't mind me being gone?"

"Oh, now don't you go frettin' or nothin'," Clay said. "We're all within shoutin' distance of each other. It'll be alright."

Master Fung smiled. "And now, it is time to say goodnight."

They all bid each other a good night's sleep and parted. Rai closed the door to within a crack, changed into his pajamas, and got into bed. It didn't take long for him to find a comfortable position seeing as how nice and soft, but not too soft, the mattress was.

He drifted off to sleep, and all thoughts of day's events were far, far and away from his mind.

* * *

So, I really wanted to give Rai a room of his own. I thought he should have one now, since he's the leader. I didn't want to leave Kimiko, Omi, or Clay out in the cold, though, so I thought they should have beds of their own like they did at Master Guan's place.

I only had time this morning to post this chap. I'll get the other one up later this afternoon.

TTFN, Nori


	16. Twilight Reflections

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

**Twilight Reflections**

In the late dusky hours of the evening, he descended.

Down onto a leaf veiled perch, just outside the temple walls.

He probably shouldn't have returned but, he couldn't help himself. He just had to see if the events of the afternoon had made any kind of emotional impact on his enemies.

And so, he waited.

There was only one temple in the complex that had lights on. He stared at it until he thought his eyes would cross.

The stars were just beginning to show in the night sky when the lights in the temple began winking out. He leaned forward as far as he dared and peered through the leaves.

Finally, the door opened.

His eyes fell on each one, in turn, looking for any signs of worry, or concern.

But, he would not find such things within them tonight.

In fact, they seemed downright jovial. They were talking, and laughing, and making grand gestures with their hands.

They were probably making fun of him.

And Chase.

And Wuya.

There had been a time, many, many, years ago, when the mention of his name would strike fear in even the most stalwart of hearts.

That was before he made the mistake of taking Chase as his apprentice.

He taught Chase everything he knew about being evil, in the hopes of molding him into the perfect, loyal, right-hand man. And then Chase had turned that knowledge against him and locked him up in the Ying-Yang world.

He might have felt some twinge of pride if Chase had actually used what he taught him to take over the world.

But, he didn't.

The only thing Chase had spent his time conquering in the intervening centuries were a bunch of warriors.

It was only after the four young dragons emerged, that he apparently felt he ought to come out and do something. Unfortunately, that something turned out to be fixating on Omi, and trying to turn him to the dark side so he could take him on as his apprentice, and fulfill some stupid prophecy.

While he frittered away valuable time playing mind games with Omi, Raimundo's true powers were able to develop unnoticed and come to the surface.

Every day that the boy trained to hone his skills, every day that he spent winning another Showdown, or battle, every day that he simply existed, was a day that he would grow stronger and become more difficult to defeat.

If he was being honest with himself, and himself was the only person he was ever usually honest with, he was not totally blameless.

His failed attempt to exact revenge against Raimundo for throwing the Showdown match with Omi should have given him an inkling that there was something else going on. Instead, he had just chalked it up to to a latent burst of determination and sheer luck.

But there was no point in engaging in ponderances of a hindsight nature. For what good is it, really, for hindsight to be twenty-twenty after the incident is over and done with?

Hindsight, in his opinion, was totally overrated.

He watched as the group wended their way down the path to the building that housed their living quarters.

The only member of the group that had broken eye contact with the others to look out toward the temple wall was Master Monk Guan.

The master monk was sensitive to his presence, as was Chase. Master Fung was less so, and the possibility existed that the master would send Raimundo back to Guan now and again, specifically for the purpose of honing the young man's senses to pick up on when he was around.

It seemed to him that he was in a bit of a quandary.

There were many different roads he could take after what happened today.

He could work on removing Chase from the picture, after which, he would take over his lair and begin inflicting some real, truly evil, damage on the inhabitants of the planet.

He could remove Master Guan from the picture, thereby stunting Raimundo's future training, and setting him back, just enough, that he could buy some time to find a tangible method of getting rid of him.

Or, he could swallow his pride and go back to Chase, and work with him to bring Raimundo down first, which would weaken the remaining forces of good and make them easier to dispense with.

Those were just the three most glaringly obvious routes. There were other, more subtle, and devious, routes he could take. Side roads that he could travel down, which would eventually lead to the main one.

He watched as the warriors entered the building. Master Guan went in last, after pausing for a moment to look out beyond the temple wall again.

He stroked the soft feathers underneath him and frowned. It was time for him to leave. He had learned absolutely nothing from his enemies tonight, with the possible exception that they thought he, and the others, were little more than a pathetic joke to be laughed at.

"Let's go Ying-Ying. It's time for me to start workin' on Plan B."

The bird spread its wings, and lifted off into the night sky, as silently as it had arrived.

His eyes remained on the temple as it grew smaller behind him in the distance. When it was finally no more than an undiscernable speck in the darkness of the night, he turned around.

Today was soon over, and tomorrow was waiting.

And the nice thing about tomorrows was that they always brought a new beginning.

* * *

I'm not exactly sure why I didn't go back to revisit Chase. For some reason, the idea of Hannibal coming back to spy on them presented itself, so, this is what came out of that.

Anyway, this is the next to last chappie (sniff). Will post the last one tomorrow.

There is a question as to the number of siblings that Rai has, as brought up by DeafLizgon. My reasoning for the number was due to my remembrance of the scene in The Last Temptation of Raimundo, after he becomes the 'freakish brute', and they are all sitting around the table talking. He has a 'schizo' moment where he is talking to himself and he says "you come from a family of eight!" So I was assuming that Rai plus seven siblings equals a family of eight. Of course, on the other hand, someone else might read that statement as: two parents plus six kids equals a family of eight. Now, I'm almost positive that in the beginning of Omi Town, when they were ripping all their presents open, he mentioned the actual number of siblings he had. Why I didn't go back and rewatch that episode to make sure the number was correct is anyone's guess…  
(and I'm really hoping he said seven!)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone for all the kind reviews that you have left. If there is anyone who would like to leave a review please do so! This is your next-to-last chance!

TTFN, Nori


	17. What Happens When You Speak Too Soon

The disclaimer is listed in Chapter One. Please backtrack to view the disclaimer.

The last chappie, in which, Master Fung gets to have the last words.

**What Happens When You Speak Too Soon**

Came the dawn, and everything seemed right with the world.

The first rays of sunlight spilled over the horizon, which set off a frenzied bout of singing amongst the birds. The sky was blue, and dotted with fluffy white clouds, and the air was warm. Surely this day would evolve in a much more agreeable manner than yesterday had.

Master Fung took a sip of his orange juice, and watched as Raimundo poured some pancake batter into one of the many pans he had heating over the stove. Normally, he didn't breakfast with his charges, but he decided to make an exception today. He wanted to talk to them about how things were going to change from this point on. Later this afternoon, he would have a more personalized discussion with Raimundo.

When he went to bed last night, he'd been worried about the state of mind Raimundo might wake up in this morning. He wasn't sure that the full reality of his new situation had settled in just yet, and nighttime, in the dark, was the worst time for something like that to hit you in the face.

It had taken him a few moments to get over the shock that Raimundo had actually gotten up early for once, and ahead of the others, when he met up with him in the hallway. The breezier side of his personality seemed to be out in full force this morning which quelled his concern about how he was handling the change. He was filled with energy, most likely of the nervous sort, but still, it was a positive energy. He seemed focused and inquisitive, and said he wanted to talk to him about something that had happened to him yesterday and, "all that mind's eye stuff you keep talking about."

This was quite a switch from the Raimundo of old, and he had to admit to himself that, even for him, it would take some getting used to. But it was a change that he welcomed whole heartedly, and personally, it was making him feel better about a lot of things already.

Rai jostled a pan that had some scrambled eggs in it, and then turned around to look at the door. He frowned. "I can't believe they're not up yet," he said. "I mean, geez, the smell alone should have woken Clay up by now. They've got five minutes, tops, and then I go after them."

It took about another three minutes until the dragons in question appeared in the doorway. Stunned silence hung in the air for a few moments as they stared, wide-eyed, at Raimundo.

"Um, is that Rai, or am I seeing live people?" Kimiko asked.

"Well, it sure enough looks like him. So, I reckon it is," Clay replied.

"So, he's up before us, _and_ he's making breakfast?" Kimiko asked.

Omi clapped a hand over his eyes, as if to shield them from beholding some horrible truth. "The world as we know it has truly changed!" he shouted.

Rai propped his hands on his hips and gave his friends a droll look. "Oh, ha-ha, aren't you all terribly funny this morning. Clay, help me with this food, please."

Clay straightened up and placed a salutary hand against his forehead. "Yes, sir! Cap'n, sir!" he said. Then he strode purposefully over to his rather annoyed leader while Kimiko and Omi indulged themselves in fits of laughter.

The rest of breakfast went smoothly thereafter, and everyone headed outside to begin tackling the day's chores. Clay, Kimiko, and Omi split off for the tool shed, while Master Fung, Master Guan, and Raimundo continued on to the Shen Gong Wu vault. They no sooner turned the corner into the courtyard than they came face to face with the sight of a humongous pile of dirt, and the Tunnel Armadillo.

Rai was the first to react. "You have _got_ to be kidding me!" he shouted. He ran closer to the Wu vault, with his masters in tow. "Spicer! I know you're in there! Show your face!" he shouted.

Jack appeared in the door frame, with a smirk on his face, and holding a bag filled with Shen Gong Wu. "Well, well, if it isn't the wind boy and his bodyguards. Ooooo, I'm scared!"

"You should be!" Rai shot back. "After the way we creamed you yesterday, I'm surprised you had the guts to come back!"

"You creamed _them_ not me! I…..uh…..voluntarily left."

"Oh, is _that_ what they call running away like a coward these days?"

"I am _not_ a coward! You don't see those other has-beens here do you? They're probably still moaning about the loss. But _not_ Jack Spicer. Evil Boy Genius. I'm a man of action! And I'm taking your Wu!"

"Oh, really? And how? We destroyed all your precious bots yesterday, remember?"

A wicked look spread over Jack's face. "I'm glad you asked me that! Dogbots!"

He stepped over to the side, and a pack of growling and barking robot dogs came running out from inside the vault.

They startled Rai badly enough that he actually backed up a few steps. When he got up this morning, the thought of fighting off a pack of vicious Dogbots was definitely not one that had crossed his mind. And since when did Jack have Dogbots?

Master Guan brought his spear up and began poking it at the Dogbots to keep them back. Rai brought his own Spear of Guan up, and began doing the same.

Omi, Clay, and Kimiko, having heard the sound of distant shouting, came careening around yon corner. They crossed the courtyard in record time and took up positions on either side of Rai.

Jack Spicer!" Omi shouted. "You _dare_ to return to challenge us!"

"Save your breath, cheeseball head, I already did the back and forth thing with your loser leader here."

Rai clenched his teeth. That was about all he was going to take from Jack. He tossed his spear to Master Fung, and reached down to pull his shoe off. He brandished it at the Dogbots.

"Look! A shoe! Doggies like to chew on shoes, don't they?"

Jack began laughing his head off. "That is so lame!"

The dogs, however, seemed rather intrigued with the shoe and stopped growling, so Rai ignored Jack's taunting. He pulled the other shoe off. "Do the doggies want to fetch the shoe?" he asked in a 'happy' voice. The dogs started jumping up and down and yapping excitedly. "Doggies _do_ want to fetch the shoes!" He gave one of the shoes a pitch. "Go fetch!" he yelled. Several of the dogs ran off after the shoe. He pitched the other shoe. "Fetch the shoe!" The rest of the dogs ran off, leaving Jack alone on the top step.

Rai watched, with a great amount of satisfaction, as what little color there was in Jack's face drained away, leaving him paler than usual.

"So, Jack," he said, cracking his knuckles, "how much do you think your life is worth right now?"

Jack swallowed nervously. "Um…..can I…..leave voluntarily?"

"Drop the bag, Jack, and I won't kick your sorry butt into next month."

Jack dropped the bag of Wu on the top step and walked down, and over, to the Tunnel Armadillo. "Um, can I keep the Armadillo?"

"What do you think, Jack?"

Jack considered the look on Rai's face, and the fact that he was woefully outnumbered, and sighed resignedly. "I guess I'll walk."

"An excellent choice, Jack. Walking is very good exercise. And make sure you _don't_ come back."

Jack walked off with slumped shoulders, and a dejected look on his face, in the direction the Dogbots had taken. Rai breathed out a sigh of relief and recomposed himself. "Well, if I wasn't wide awake before, I am now." He turned to his friends, "You know, your timing is awesome. You can get back to the tool shed, though. We'll put the Wu back, _again_, and release the warrior cats and send them back with Chase's spear."

He looked down at his feet. "And, uh, I guess I need a new pair of shoes."

xsxsxsxs

The Ying Yo-Yo was reemployed, along with the Yang Yo-Yo, for the releasing of the warrior cats. It went off without a hitch, as long as you ignored the tiny fact that they tried to rip him to pieces, both as they were running after him to escape out of the Ying-Yang world, and then, when they had landed back in the real world. He swept them off their feet, literally, and as they dangled helplessly in the air, he explained to them that he had defeated their master fair and square. He was letting them go, and they were to take the spear back with them. Master Guan accompanied the cats as far as the top temple step and watched them leave.

Master Fung left to go round up Clay, Omi, and Kimiko, while Rai went back to their living quarters to retrieve Master Guan's already packed duffle bag.

As the others waited for Rai at the top of the temple steps, they mostly discussed how long it might take for the Heylins to regroup, and decide to try and attack them again.

Raimundo returned shortly with Dojo perched on his shoulder. He walked over to Master Guan, and handed him his duffle bag and Chucky Choo. Then he walked back to stand at Master Fung's side.

They sent Master Guan off with many thanks, and well wishes for a safe trip home. He had decided to walk back, instead of using the Golden Tiger Claws, seeing as how it was such a nice day. They remained at the steps watching, as he walked away, receding ever further, until it seemed that he was just a mere pinpoint in the distance. When he came to the top of the hill, he stopped long enough to give them a final wave. Then he turned, and vanished from sight.

The warriors headed back to the buildings in the courtyard then, because Rai wanted to stay close to the Wu vault for now. Wind power was used to lift the bricks up off the ground and separate them into two piles – damaged and undamaged. The same was done for the blue roof tiles.

The wall was repaired, as were the roofs, and a new door was put on the vault.

Rai decided that they'd worked quite long enough for now, and declared that it was time to break for lunch.

Clay stretched himself up as far as he could and began rubbing his back. "I'm hungrier than a bear that just got out o' hibernation," he said. He and Kimiko walked off, with Rai trailing behind them.

Rai only made it a few yards when the sense came over him that he was missing someone. He went back to the courtyard and found Omi standing in front of the building that he'd slammed Chase into. He debated with himself as to whether or not he ought to go over and say something, and decided that now was probably as good a time as any to have a talk with him.

"Are you upset that I defeated Chase, Omi?" he asked gently.

Omi was uncharacteristically quiet for awhile before he answered. "No." He paused. There was a question he had been struggling with since yesterday. He supposed, now that Raimundo was his leader, he should to ask him to see what he thought. "Do you think that Chase will ever turn back to the good side?"

Now it was Rai's turn to be silent as he considered how he ought to answer Omi's question. "Did he show any remorse at all for the things he did while he had you trapped in cat form?"

Omi frowned at that, while he sifted through some unhappy memories. "No," he said dejectedly.

Rai put a comforting hand on Omi's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Omi, but I'm afraid you just answered your own question. Chase knew that the Lao Meng Lon soup was a potion of evil when he drank it. He could have told Hannibal 'no', but he didn't. I can guarantee you that if he had been successful in defeating us, he would have told you that you needed to make a decision as to whether or not you wanted to become his apprentice again, or be turned back into a cat. I don't think that's much of a choice, really."

The answer was not an unexpected one. Omi knew that Rai spoke the truth, but still, it was difficult to hear. He had gotten to know the other Chase, the nice one, and it just hurt to think that there was nothing to be done to bring back that side of him.

"Look, Omi," Rai said, breaking into Omi's thoughts. "There's something I would like to say to you."

Omi turned to look at him. Raimundo was finally going to chastise him about the missing Chopsticks from yesterday. He might as well take it and get it over with.

"Listen," Rai began, "I know that this was always your temple. That it's the only home you've ever known. Then, the three of us came, and, well, kind of took over the place. We took a lot of the attention away from you that you were used to getting. Now, I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy that I was named leader. I'm just sorry that your feelings had to get hurt in the process. I really hope you will make a sincere effort to adjust to the new changes again."

Omi diverted his gaze from Rai. This was totally not what he was expecting, and it took him by surprise. Maybe Raimundo wouldn't make such a bad leader after all. He looked back up at him and said, "Those are very kind words for you to say Raimundo. And I thank you for them. I will try my best to do what you ask."

Rai smiled. "You're welcome, Omi. Now let's go find some leftovers from last night to eat. If we're lucky, we won't have to fight Clay for 'em."

xsxsxsxs

Rai studied the Bonsai plant sitting in front of him on the table. "You know," he said, "I'm okay with everything you've said so far." He paused. "Even about the plant."

He was addressing his master, who sat next to him at the patio table. "The two parts I like best, though, are the ones about the new phase of training, and working on my new powers. The rest of the other stuff is okay, too. But, diplomacy lessons? I mean, c'mon. Why do I need diplomacy lessons?" He smacked his fist into his hand to make his point. "I'm not planning on being diplomatic with the bad guys."

"Do you remember the negotiations you undertook in your effort to get Omi back from Chase Young?" Master Fung asked.

"Yeah," Rai replied, "I suppose you have a point, there." He thought back to when Omi was trapped in cat form and he had to make a deal with Chase to get him back.

"There will be times where you will need to negotiate, even with people you find distasteful, in order to resolve the situation you are in. Diplomacy is not just a political action. It is the art of speaking in a manner so as to obtain that which you need from the persons who are reluctant to give it."

Rai gave Master Fung a blank look. "And the fact that I really don't understand what it is that you just said, is proof that you're qualified to teach it."

Master Fung smiled. "It will also come in handy when you're dealing with disputes among your three new charges."

Rai wave a hand dismissively. "Them? Oh, I can handle them. Remember I said I just had a nice talk with Omi? I mean, really, now that all the jockeying for position is over, I'm not expecting things to get out of hand with them anymore. Besides, Clay and Kimiko have always gotten along better with Omi than I have."

The words were no sooner out of his mouth when Omi came running out onto the patio looking quite fearful. He stopped when he reached the bottom step, and turned to look behind him.

Kimiko came running out next. She looked furious beyond all reason. She skidded to a halt at the top of the steps and shot a death glare at Omi.

Omi put one foot down onto the grass, and clutched his Ancient Guide to Females book to his chest. "I will never allow you to hurt my ancient tome!" he cried.

"Oh, I'm not going to hurt your tome," Kimi growled through clenched teeth. "I going to **_burn it to_** **_cinders!_**" she exclaimed, yelling out the last four words.

She leaped off the top of the steps. Omi screamed and tore off across the yard. Dojo came slithering out then, yelling and waving his arms, "Guys, guys, _stop!_" He turned around and looked at Clay, who came running out last. "A little help here!" Dojo said angrily to him. "Do ya mind?" He ran down off the steps on his two front feet.

"I _told_ you!" Clay shot back, "I had to finish my sandwich!" He ran after Dojo, shouting, "Kimiko, please, you don't really wanna hurt 'im!"

Rai stared, thunderstruck, at the scene passing in front of his eyes. For once, he was totally speechless. Omi ran across the yard shouting "Help me!" Kimiko ran after him hurling flames at him. Dojo and Clay ran after the pair of them, shouting and trying to get them to stop.

Rai opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He shut his mouth, waited a moment, then tried it again. "Um, do I really want to know what happened with them?" he asked Master Fung.

"Probably not," the master replied. "But since you are now the leader, you should anyway."

A forlorn look crossed Rai's face. "So…..this leadership stuff...it's not as easy as you seem to make it look, is it?"

Master Fung regarded his protégé with an arched eyebrow and a sense of amusement. There was a sentence, so perfect in it's phrasing, that seemed to lend itself to the current situation they were in. He turned it over in his mind and decided that, for emphasis purposes, he could probably use it twice.

"Welcome to my world, Raimundo," he said. "Welcome to my world."

finis

* * *

And that's it!

A little of this, a little of that. Jack finally gets a big scene, and Master Fung has someone to help him in dealing with the other dragons.

I couldn't bring myself to write an 'and they all flew merrily off into the sunset after the next Shen Gong Wu' ending. Really, I couldn't…

But what did Omi say/do that got Kimi so riled up? I really don't know. And I don't think I wanna know. It's better that way…..

I have a one-shot that I'm going to post in the next day or two. Lizz asked if there would be a sequel. Well, no there isn't one in the planning, sorry. But who knows? Maybe I'll get around to writing another involved story about them. If I do it'll most likely be with them being a few years older. I can't promise anything though.

I'm also in the middle of writing a LOST fic, so I need to keep working on that right now.

According to Reigen Doki, Rai _did _say he had eight siblings in Omi town. So, yes, that isn't consistent with the comment he made in Last Temptation. (dang!)

Thank you, thank you to those of you who liked my fic and enjoyed reading it. I wasn't sure how it would go over, and I'm glad that those of you who reviewed liked it. It encourages me to write some more stuff, not necessarily just XS fics. Hopefully, anything I post in other threads will be received well also.

Ya'll enjoy the rest of your April, and hopefully all this crazy weather will settle down and some nice warm breezes will start blowing through.

TTFN(TaTaForNow), Noritsu  
_this is no pie!_


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